By IRNA,
New York : US President-elect Barack Obama will introduce rules to restrict the role of lobbyists as he shapes his administration.
Transition chief John Podesta said Obama would introduce “the strictest and most far reaching ethics rules of any transition team in history”.
He promised the “most open and transparent” ever handover of power.
At a briefing in Washington, Podesta told reporters Obama had “pledged to change the way Washington works and curb the influence of lobbyists”.
Interest groups have been offering recommendations on
cabinet-level appointments to the Obama transition team.
But Podesta gave no indication of when the key posts of treasury secretary and secretary of state would be filled.
Under the new measures, Obama will not allow lobbyists actively petitioning the federal government to work with the transition, said Podesta.
The guidelines will also prevent anyone who has acted as a lobbyist over the last 12 months from working on any policy area in the transition in which they had been active.
He added that anyone who works on the transition and then becomes a lobbyist will be barred from approaching the administration for 12 months in the area in which they worked.