To take a slightly different example, when I lived in Canada I was a member of a group trying to remove barriers to FLOSS in the Canadian government. One of th

To take a slightly different example, when I lived in Canada I was a member of a group trying to remove barriers to FLOSS in the Canadian government. One of the things we often talked about was our concern that people with purchasing authority in IT sometimes took early retirement from the government as soon as they could get full pension. They would then take up various positions in Microsoft in their retirement. The concern was that there was an implicit agreement that if the people with purchasing authority made sure that Microsoft products were pushed through, they would be able to retire early, draw their pension and also receive a salary from MS. Indeed, Corel once won a lawsuit showing that the Canadian government was making RFPs which specified that the software had to come from MS (which is against Canadian government policy). Of course it makes considerable sense for companies to hire retired government insiders to help them with strategy and/or lobbying. There is no way to prove that there was any wrong doing while the person was a government employee. There are also no conflict of interest guidelines that can apply since the person is no longer a government employee. It does, however, raise the question about whether or not the appointment is actually the payment on a bribe for services rendered. While such an allegation requires proof, it is important to stay alert to these kinds of things.