Connections Work for Ex-Trade Official

It is hardly unusual for high-level government executives here to leave their positions for lucrative jobs in the private sector.

But the case of Rosa Whitaker stands out as an example of why Washington officials are increasingly debating what constitutes a conflict of interest in such comings and goings.

Whitaker set up the first in a series of business relationships with African leaders and countries while still working as the U.S. trade representative’s top official for Africa, according to sources, correspondence and other documents obtained by The Times.

After assisting a Nigerian governor with a trade program, Whitaker launched plans to create a private foundation with him once she left the government, the records show.

The incorporation papers for their organization, designed to attract foreign investment to his state, were signed on the day she left her job.

And within weeks, she had opened her own consulting firm that was to receive a management fee to run the new organization, according to documents provided by a source familiar with the transaction.

The arrangement with the Nigerian official was just the beginning for Whitaker, who had been the architect of a landmark trade law that eliminated U.S. duties on billions of dollars of selected African exports.

Six days after she left the trade office, she received a free round-trip ticket from the Ugandan government. Her consulting firm soon landed a $300,000-a-year contract under which she advised Uganda on how to benefit from the trade law she helped write.

By March, she had signed a contract with Ghana, also for $300,000 a year, to consult on the law, known as the African Growth and Opportunity Act, or AGOA.

“It looks like she’s trading off on her expertise and credentials in a really blatant way,” said Larry Noble, head of the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington watchdog group.

Whitaker said her private pursuits were aboveboard and approved in advance by the trade representative’s office. “It’s not a conflict to work in government and then come out and work on similar initiatives,” she said.

She said she did not discuss the consulting contracts with Ugandan, Ghanaian or any other African officials until after she left office.

However, she declined to discuss the joint effort with the Nigerian governor. In a written response, Whitaker said that a list of questions The Times submitted about their organization was “full of offensive and inaccurate information,” but she did not elaborate.

Federal ethics rules did not necessarily prohibit Whitaker’s discussions with prospective business partners before she left office or her contracts with the clients afterward. Legal experts say the law is ambiguous, and a series of recent revolving-door cases has renewed concerns that restrictions do not adequately prevent conflicts of interest.

The Bush administration issued new rules in January that require White House clearance before senior political appointees can talk to prospective employers about jobs in the private sector. The order came after the administration’s Medicare administrator left his post for private-sector jobs with two firms that have healthcare interests.

Another case drew scrutiny last year, when Boeing hired a former senior Pentagon official who had overseen some of the company’s contracts while in government. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) told The Times that committee hearings would take place this spring on “this constant revolving door, and incestuous relationship” between government and business.

Even as McCain moves to take action, the Senior Executives Assn., a group of active and retired federal employees, has been lobbying Congress to roll back a law tightening post-employment ethics rules that took effect this year.

Federal officials are covered by rules that bar them from using “public office for private gain” or seeking future employment that “conflict[s] with official government duties and responsibilities.”

When they leave office, former officials are bound by laws that restrict their work on matters they handled while in government. The restrictions are intended to keep the prospect of a future job from influencing an official’s decisions. The rules also attempt to discourage former officials from cashing in on the contacts they make in their government positions.

But the rules have been narrowly interpreted, and the Justice Department has rarely prosecuted former officials for violations.

“Ethics laws are intended to prevent people from financially benefiting from the contacts and inside information that result from high-level government work,” said Melanie Sloan, a former federal prosecutor and now executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “But they are written in such a way that it’s almost impossible to violate them.”

Scott Amey, a lawyer preparing an upcoming report on federal ethics laws for the Washington-based Project on Government Oversight, said a case like Whitaker’s raised legitimate questions because of the close relationship between her public responsibilities and private pursuits.

“The public has the right to know whether a government employee used their office for a personal gain,” he said.

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‘Mother of AGOA’

Whitaker left the government Dec. 20, 2002, to form the Whitaker Group, a private consulting firm that builds on her expertise on AGOA.

“The core of TWG’s business is making sure the African Growth and Opportunity Act delivers real, bottom-line results,” says the company website, which features pictures of Whitaker with presidents Bush and Clinton.

The site says that the Whitaker Group lobbies in Washington through its connections to the executive branch, Congress, business and the media, and that it has “generated more than $40 million dollars worth of deals for African clients.” Whitaker is described as having “an extensive network of contacts in the U.S. government and business community, as well as the public and private sectors throughout Africa.”

Whitaker focused on AGOA during her years in the federal government. She helped draft the legislation after she was hired as senior trade advisor for Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) in 1996.

It had not yet passed when Clinton picked Whitaker as the first head of the trade representative’s newly created Office of African Affairs in 1998. She continued to work on the legislation’s development and passage there.

AGOA aimed to increase African exports and economic growth by eliminating duties on hundreds of products African countries sell to the United States, such as clothing, petroleum and agricultural goods.

To qualify for AGOA’s trade benefits, African governments had to agree to American-backed economic reforms -- such as reducing government spending and barriers to foreign investment -- and abide by some human rights standards.

The trade deal was backed by oil companies, clothing retailers and most of the Congressional Black Caucus. It was opposed by U.S. apparel manufacturers and labor groups concerned about losing business and jobs to Africa.

After a multiyear lobbying campaign, AGOA was passed by Congress and signed into law by Clinton in 2000.

Whitaker played such a central role in fighting for the bill that Liz Claiborne Inc., a key backer of AGOA, thanked her in an advertisement that ran in lights on the news ticker in Times Square in New York City.

As assistant U.S. trade representative for Africa, Whitaker oversaw and managed AGOA. She helped determine which countries would be eligible to participate, implemented the trade agreement, and was responsible for educating countries about its benefits.

She stayed in her post under Bush and promoted “AGOA II” legislation that increased the range and number of African exports allowed to enter the U.S. market duty-free. The president signed the legislation in August 2002.

Thirty-seven African countries are currently eligible to participate in AGOA, which the Bush administration calls “the cornerstone” of its trade policy toward sub-Saharan Africa.

“When she walks in a room, people say, ‘Here comes the mother of AGOA,’ ” Josette Shiner of the trade representative’s office told a crowd of senior administration officials, members of Congress and African diplomats who attended Whitaker’s going-away ceremony in December 2002.

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Private Pursuits

Among the many beneficiaries of Whitaker’s efforts was Jigawa state, a remote province in Nigeria that produces gum arabic, an ingredient in soft drinks and pharmaceuticals.

Whitaker helped set up a program to promote export of Jigawa’s gum arabic to the United States. She gave a speech at a Jigawa state ceremony launching the project in January 2002. Jigawa state’s Washington lobby shop reported conferring monthly with Whitaker about the project through June 2002, records show.

Howard Jeter, U.S. ambassador to Nigeria when the gum arabic initiative was launched, said Whitaker was the “catalyst” for the project. “She put all the pieces together,” he said. “It wouldn’t have happened without her.”

By November 2002, the month before she left her post, Whitaker and an attorney had begun putting together a business venture with the governor of Jigawa state, Ibrahim Turaki, according to sources and documents.

The documents include planning memos that describe the effort and correspondence among the three and others involved in the arrangement.

They formed the Trade & Investment Foundation for Africa, whose primary goal was to attract foreign investment to Jigawa. The group’s articles of incorporation were signed on Whitaker’s last day in her government job, public records show. Whitaker and Turaki are listed as board members of the organization, which was registered in Washington three days later.

Whitaker’s new consulting firm, the Whitaker Group, was to be paid to manage the foundation, according to a source familiar with the deal, who also provided a foundation planning document and internal correspondence that discussed the financial arrangement.

The source also provided a draft 2003 budget for the foundation that included a $100,000 management fee for the Whitaker Group.

Whitaker did not answer questions about whether her firm received money from the foundation and about the timing of its formation.

In an earlier interview on her other clients, Whitaker said she did not discuss future work for any African country while at the trade representative’s office. “I did not solicit clients or business while in government, nor did I discuss my career plans with the officials or representatives of any African country while in government,” she said.

Neither Turaki nor his attorney responded to questions about the foundation.

Government officials are allowed to seek employment before resigning their positions, but ethics rules place restrictions on discussion of any private-sector position that relates to their official duties. Such discussions generally require written permission from their agency.

The trade representative’s office, citing privacy law, would not comment on whether Whitaker’s discussions with Turaki would have required preapproval, nor would it say whether Whitaker had sought the agency’s consent. However, Richard Mills, a trade representative spokesman, said that for at least the last three years, “no agency employee has been granted” a special waiver to hold talks about future employment.

Less than a week after she resigned from her government post, Whitaker accepted a round-trip airline ticket from the government of Uganda for what she described as a vacation and business trip.

Whitaker said she discussed a consulting contract with officials from the government of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. Whitaker soon signed a deal, effective Jan. 20, 2003, that paid her firm $300,000 per year, according to a foreign agent disclosure report that her firm filed with the Justice Department.

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Close Friendship

Whitaker had developed a close friendship with Museveni while at the trade representative’s office. She headed U.S. delegations to Uganda several times and also made a private visit, spending part of a Christmas holiday at the country home of Museveni and his family.

Uganda was a major supporter of AGOA, and its apparel exports to the U.S. climbed from $600 million in 1999 -- the year before Congress passed the trade deal -- to $1.1 billion in 2002.

As a paid consultant, Whitaker said, she helped arrange a visit to Washington by Museveni in June 2003. He met with key congressional leaders and Bush, who held a White House ceremony honoring him for his support of AGOA.

Not everyone in Uganda is happy with Whitaker’s work. The Monitor, a newspaper in the capital city of Kampala, criticized her deal with the government, saying the money she was being paid could be used to double the number of doctors the nation’s Health Ministry planned to hire for rural areas.

Aggrey Awori, an opposition-party politician, said a parliamentary committee was investigating Uganda’s participation in AGOA, including how Whitaker had obtained her contract with the government. “Her relationship to the president has enhanced her business prospects here,” Awori said.

Whitaker blamed the controversy about her contract on internal politics. “My support for Uganda ... is helping President Museveni, with whom [my critics] have a long-standing political and personal vendetta,” she said.

Sam Kutesa, Ugandan finance minister and the president’s brother-in-law, who signed the deal with her, said, “She has done a good job, and we are quite happy.”

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Few Experts

Last March, Whitaker signed the $300,000 contract with Ghana, according to her foreign agent disclosure report.

While at the trade representative’s office, she had helped Ghana become the second African country to sign a special trade and investment framework agreement with the United States. The deal, signed in 1999, aimed to reduce trade barriers.

At an awards dinner in the U.S. in 2001, Ghana’s vice president lauded Whitaker for leading the charge on AGOA. She traveled to Ghana most recently in July 2002 as part of a U.S. delegation taking part in a seminar on the trade act.

Andrew Melrose, a Whitaker Group employee until December, said a number of other African countries was considering hiring Whitaker. “The Africa field is very small,” he said. “There are very few experts who can deliver what she can.”

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New Trade Initiative

In June, Whitaker created an ad hoc committee that is seeking to expand and extend the AGOA trade deal, whose benefits are due to expire in 2008. She and her committee, whose members include Coca-Cola and the National Retail Federation, have worked closely with Congress and the trade representative’s office to help draft legislation that would extend the law’s trade benefits for at least seven years and provide new incentives for African apparel exports to the U.S.

Separate versions of the legislation, called AGOA III, were introduced last November in the House and Senate, where they are now pending.

Whitaker’s position is covered by a rule that forbids former officials from trying to influence matters that were “pending under [their] official responsibility” during the year before their resignation.

But Mills, the trade representative spokesman, said that Whitaker had left the government before AGOA III was drafted.

“She’s clearly been involved in the AGOA III initiative, and she’s been in touch with trade representative officials about the AGOA III legislation,” he said. “But she didn’t work on AGOA III while in the government.”

“I was fully conscious of my legal and ethical obligations, and have been scrupulous in my compliance with both the letter and the spirit of the law,” Whitaker said.