i used to work in a place that did this exact same thing. they attempted to hide passwords in source code. there is an even bigger problem with this then security of it in source - if someone comprimises the password, how are you going to change it quickly? all those systems will have to update their exe. keep in mind they could get it any other number of ways forcing you to change it.
it's the same reason it's not a good idea to put static address's in source. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
