If my (Monk's) theory is right, that the Belisarious Group were around plotting a war with the Kilrathi before 2634, the Mandarins may have been their creation.

Consider this:

• Traitors must perforce be secretive; and might not recognize one another at the sauna. For traitors to come together as an organization, the organization ought to have preceded them.
• If the intent of Belisarius was to have a prolonged war, they'd want to put in place a regulating mechanism whereby, if the cats would seem to be losing the war, they could feed them information and technologies to bring them up to par.