General Dynamics Corporation
Ex military appointees
In August General Sir Peter Wall, the former UK Chief of the General Staff, was appointed a non-executive director of General Dynamics Corporation in August 2016.
At the time, GD had a large number of live and closed contracts with the UK MOD, including a significant contract for Scout specialist vehicles.[1]
Noting both the contracts and the fact that Sir Peter 'had had official dealings with GD and its competitors during its last two years of service', the prime minister's Advisory Committee on Business Appointments(ACOBA) said that it had discussed whether it should recommend the position as 'unsuitable'.
Ultimately, however, ACOBA concluded 'that there was no reason why Sir Peter should not take up this appointment' if he were to respect a waiting period of 18 months before 'personally lobbying the UK Government, including the MOD and the Armed Forces, either formally or informally on behalf of General Dynamics Corporation, its subsidiaries or clients' and if he did 'not have any involvement with matters relating to the Scout contract'. [2]
It should be noted that if ACOBA had deemed the position as unsuitable, we would most likely not ever have known, as ACOBA does not publicise such rulings.
According to Campaign Against the Arms Trade, Wall met twice with General Dynamics while working for the MOD. [3]
- ↑ Advisory Committee on Business Appointments Decision: Summary of business appointments applications - Sir Peter Wall, 5 September 2016, accessed 6 September 2016. ACOBA's letter containing the final advice was sent in September 2015 and the appointment was taken up in August 2016.
- ↑ [https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/wall-peter-chief-of-the-general-staff-mod-acoba-recommendation/summary-of-business-appointments-applications-sir-peter-wall Summary of Business appointments applications - Sir Peter Wall, UK Government, (date), first accessed 8 September 2016, last accessed March 2018
- ↑ General Dynamics meetings, Political Influence Browser, accessed 27 March 2018
