Boeing agrees to independent watchdog

[United Press International]

CHICAGO, May 4 (UPI) -- Chicago's Boeing Co. has hired an
outside ethics watchdog to alert the government about any future
transgressions by the aerospace giant.
The name of the outside group was not disclosed, the Wall
Street Journal reported Tuesday. The monitor will answer to both the
government and to Boeing.
Although negotiations are still under way with the U.S. Air
Force, Boeing has already agreed to the independent monitor to try
and get back into favor with the Pentagon.
Since last summer, the company has been stripped of $1
billion in Air Force rocket orders as a result of possessing boxes
of rival Lockheed Martin Corp.'s proprietary documents. Boeing
remains barred from bidding on any new government-rocket business.
And it faces a separate criminal investigation by the
Justice Department for hiring a former senior Air Force procurement
official before she removed herself from responsibility for Boeing
business, including a $23 billion program to provide
aerial-refueling tankers.