The Air Force said in a statement that it has asked the Pentagon's inspector general to look into several contract awards, including $278 million for upgrades on E-3 Airborne Warning & Control System aircraft provided to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The contract, publicly awarded in mid-December 2002, was negotiated in October of that year by an Air Force team that included principal deputy assistant secretary for acquisition and management Darleen Druyun.
That October has become a pivotal month in the Pentagon investigation. At that time, Ms. Druyun began discussing employment opportunities with former Boeing chief financial officer Michael Sears, Darleen Druyun: The face only Michael Sears could lovecompany officials said. She didn't recuse herself until Nov. 5 from making Boeing-related decisions. Federal law prohibits government acquisition officials from having such discussions until their oversight role ends.
Ms. Druyun joined Boeing in January 2003. Two weeks ago, she and Mr. Sears were both fired for cause after the company uncovered the employment discussions as well as an attempt to hide them. Boeing has turned over e-mails and other documents related to these findings to the Pentagon inspector general. That agency is already investigating Ms. Druyun over whether she provided Boeing with competition-sensitive information while negotiating a plan to lease Boeing aerial tankers to the Air Force.
The hilarious aspect is that Druyun's Boeing mentor Michael Sears was about to publish one of those "you too can manage your pitiful company as brilliantly as I managed Boeing" self-help management books that are meant to inspire wonder and awe in the middle-management book-buying class that still clings tenaciously to something resembling a sense of right and wrong.
