IEC Journal

Reminder: Meeting Moved to Nov. 13

The November Interagency Ethics Council Meeting will take place on Tuesday, November 13. This is a switch from the usual first Tuesday of the month scheduling. The  November meeting will be at 12:15 at the OTS auditorium, 1700 G Street, N.W. -- the corner of 17th and G Streets. 

GSA's Lenny Loewentritt will provide one of his patented travel regulation update briefings.

Whistleblower Protection Efforts

The American Prospect has a short article on whistleblower protection legislation.

Article re law enforcement and Gov. ethics

Attached is an article that Bert DiBella, Senior Attorney, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and the MSPB case reporter; and Special Agent Tom Golden, Senior Instructor, DEA Office of Training, co-wrote.  The article is geared towards those agencies that employ law enforcement officers.  The article addresses character as it applies to law enforcement officers at all levels of government.  Because more organizations are recognizing that they cannot operate effectively without infusing ethics as part of its core values, the authors believe this is a timely article for law enforcement organizations. The article explores why character is important for any law enforcement organization using several case studies to bring home the point.  This article also demonstrates how  ethics counselors and agency employee can work together to promote an agency's ethics program.

Download article_with_bertfinal.doc

November Deadlines

November deadlines fom the 2007 OGE Calendar:

1 -- Reminder: Only 60 days remain in the Public Financial Disclosure calendar year. Remember that employees need to serve in a position for 60 days or more to file. (5 CFR § 2634.204)

30 -- DUE TO OGE TODAY: Agencies must submit an annual update of current agency separate component designations for 18 U.S.C. § 207(c). Agencies need not reply if their department or agency currently has no designated components and they do not wish to request the designation of any component. (5 CFR § 2641.201(e)(3)(ii)). For more information, please refer to DAEOgram DO-07-036 issued September 26, 2007.

30 -- DUE TO OGE TODAY: Agencies must submit an annual update of positions previously exempted from senior employee designation under 18 U.S.C. § 207(c). (5 CFR § 2641.201(d)(3)(ii))

30 -- DUE TO OGE TODAY: The 1353 travel report for payments of travel accepted from non-federal sources is due today. Agencies must submit either a positive or a negative report. The 1353 travel report should cover the period of April 1, 2007 - September 30, 2007. (31U.S.C. 1353)

As a reminder, 120% of the minimum rate of basic pay payable for grade 15 of the General Schedule is $111,675.60 and 15% of the annual rate of basic pay for level II of the Executive Schedule is $25,200.

More Guidance on Funeral Attendance

Mark Stone provided two additional resources to supplement his advice on “Sources of Guidance on Travel at Government Expense to Funerals”:

1. A four-page, November 2005 document issued by the Air Force General Counsel entitled “Funding Travel to Certain Ceremonies.” Travel to funerals is discussed at pages 2-3. (FLITE password required).
2. Matter of: Central Intelligence Agency – Use of Government Vehicle to Attend Funeral of Employee’s Child, Comp. Gen. Dec. B-275365, December 17, 1996.

Survey: Dissatisfaction With Federal Managers

A new survey reported in Government Executive reflects a high level of public dissatisfaction with the performance of federal managers:

By and large, the public gave government failing grades for management efficiency and fiscal responsibility. The questionnaire asked if recipients were satisfied with government's management practices and spending habits. Eighty-nine percent offered a grade of C, D or F.

Among those expressing the least satisfaction with performance were retirees, citizens with at least a high school diploma and those who identified themselves as politically independent.

And, it appears Americans are even less satisfied with oversight of federal contractors. Ninety-two percent of those surveyed said they "do not believe or are unsure if the federal government appropriately manages and gets the best value out of private-sector contractors."

OGE Survey: Today's the Day

Look for an e-mail from an Office of Government Ethics contractor using the address EOS@Raosoftsurveys.com. Don't let your anti-spam filter eat this important OGE survey! More information is available.

November Meeting

Next month's meeting will take place on Tuesday, November 13th at 12:15 in the OTS auditorium, 1700 G Street, N.W. -- the corner of 17th and G Streets.  Please note that because of scheduling conflicts we will be meeting on a Tuesday rather than the usual Thursday.  Our guest speaker will be Lenny Loewentritt, of GSA, who will brief us on recent changes to the travel regulations.  This is always a popular and informative session, so you'll want to make sure that your agency is represented.  Individuals who are on the IEC roster need not pre-register for this meeting.  Ethics officials who are not on our roster but who wish to attend can pre-register by contacting Patrick Carney not later than Wednesday, November 7th.  Those who are neither on our roster nor pre-registered for this meeting can still be admitted upon showing a Government ID to OTS security personnel and signing in.

As announced at last month's meeting, beginning on January 1st all routine e-mail notices of IEC meetings, job openings, etc. will automatically be sent to those IEC members who have subscribed to the IEC Journal.  We will no longer be sending out such notices manually -- they will only be sent through our website.  In order to subscribe to the IEC Journal and continue to receive such e-mails please click on the "Receive New Posts by E-Mail" link to the left of this page and follow the instructions provided.  Detailed written instructions on subscribing were provided at last month's meeting and will again be available at our November meeting.  Individuals who do not wish to receive such e-mails can continue to obtain information on upcoming meetings, ethics job vacancies, etc. simply by visiting this website.

Limits on First Class Air Travel

A Government Executive article examines legislation aimed at reducing perceived abuses in use of First Class air travel by government employees:

Federal employees' travel spending has come under scrutiny lately; a GAO report released in September showed that workers spent at least $146 million on improper premium class air travel between July 2005 and June 2006. DeMint and McCaskill said in a press release that the provision would make the abuse of air travel illegal and force agencies to pay closer attention to the travel guidelines.

"Tax dollars should be spent wisely or not spent at all, and this type of waste is exactly why Americans are fed up with a federal bureaucracy that has grown too large to police itself," DeMint said in a statement. McCaskill called first-class airline travel an "unnecessary extravagance" and warned against treating tax dollars "like Monopoly money."

The GAO report (GAO-07-1268) stated that about 67 percent of premium travel was not properly authorized, justified or both. The watchdog agency said insufficient oversight was a primary cause of the abuse and issued a series of recommendations to GSA and the Office of Management and Budget. They included increasing travel audits, requiring agencies to report premium travel and taking a risk-based approach to travel monitoring.

Feds Getting Into Blogging

Federal Times has an interesting story about blogs operated by federal agencies.

OGE Issues New Crossword Puzzle

The fourth OGE training crossword puzzle is available. It's entitled "General Things You Should Know About Ethics." The OGE web site has more information about the series of instructional aids.

Watch for OGE Survey

If you are an executive branch ethics official, be alert next week for an Office of Government Ethics survey. OGE is using a contractor to conduct the survey, and invitations will come via an e-mail from EOS@Raosoftsurveys.com. Since this company is not on the "white list" of most anti-spam software, watch to make sure the invitation is not screened out.

The OGE announcement explains:

The purpose of this survey is to provide OGE with insights into the practices and needs of executive branch agency ethics officials.  The information gathered in this survey will enhance OGE’s ability to more closely integrate its goals with the needs of agency ethics officials.

Disparities in Hatch Act Enforcement?

Government Executive reports on a Senate hearing about alleged inequities in Hatch Act Enforcement:

MSPB lacks jurisdiction over most Senate-confirmed political appointees and White House staffers, Akaka noted. In those cases, the OSC can send its findings to the president, but the president is not obligated to take any action.

National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen Kelley complained that lower level employees are treated more harshly and observed:

I would advise anyone who I represent that they do not want to be set up to be a test case before the Office of Special Counsel. If they believe for a minute that a manager could zero in on them and make them a test case for OSC, their interest in exercising their rights is squelched quite a bit.

USAID Job Opening

USAID is recruiting a lawyer to handle ethics and employment law issues. It's a GS-14 job with promotion potential to GS-15. The closing date is Oct. 31. USA Jobs has more information.

OGE Training on "Resolving Real and Perceived Conflicts"

The Office of Government Ethics will hold training on the subject "Resolving Real and Perceived Conflicts" on Nov. 7 and 13.

Religious Comp Time

The Washington Post has a lengthy story about federal employee abuse of religious comp time. The program began in 1978 as a way to let employees bank overtime hours and then use them to attend religious events without using their accumulated vacation time. Some agencies apparently allowed employees to accumulate more hours than intended, and to be paid in cash for the hours when they left federal service. Here's one of the examples:

[T]he Navy determined that three civilian managers in Rhode Island had accrued hundreds of hours of religious leave and used the time to play golf, gamble, run marathons and travel to Europe. They banked their regular vacation leave so that they would be eligible for large cash payouts upon retirement.

Asked whether he considered a golf tournament to be a religious observance, one of the workers told Navy investigators: "They could be for some people."

CREW Document Review System

Citizens for Responsiblity and Ethics in Washington (CREW) takes an innovative approach to ethics enforcement with its CREW Document Review System. The organization obtains documents through Freedom of Information Act requests, and makes them available at its web site for the public to review and help organize. It's something like a Wikipedia approach. The web site invites:

Help us fight government corruption by reviewing and tagging documents that we've received from the government. It's a fun and easy way to make a difference in just a few minutes.

Doing The Job

So many news stories take a negative tone that it's a welcome change of pace to be reminded that most federal civil servants are honest and competent. Thanks to Fedblog for highlighting this NY Times profile of an EEOC official, correctly described as "one of those studies in quiet, earnest commitment to serving the public good that reinforces one's faith in the country's civil service."

Initial Ethics Training

The Office of Government Ethics published the minimum requirements for initial ethics orientation for new government employees at 5 C.F.R. 2638.703, reproduced below. Are you doing more than the bare minimum, or doing it in a particularly efficient manner? Let us know via the Contact Us link at left and we will share your ideas with other ethics counselors. Here are the current requirements:

Sec.  2638.703  Initial agency ethics orientation for all employees.

Within 90 days from the time an employee begins work for an agency, the agency must do the following:
    (a) Ethics materials. The agency must give the employee:
    (1) The Standards and any agency supplemental standards to keep or review; or
    (2) Summaries of the Standards, any agency supplemental standards, and the Principles to keep.

Note to paragraph (a): If the agency does not give the employee the Standards and any agency supplemental standards to keep, the complete text of both must be readily available in the employee's immediate office area.

    (b) Contact persons. The agency must give the employee the names, titles, and office addresses and telephone numbers of the designated agency ethics official and other agency officials available to advise the employee on ethics issues.
    (c) One hour to review. The agency must give the employee at least one hour of official duty time to review the items described above. This one-hour requirement may be reduced by any amount of time the employee receives verbal ethics training in the same 90-day period.

Bloch Defends OSC Performance

Office of Special Counsel Head Scott Bloch defended his agency's performance recently in a Federal Times op-ed piece. This includes some commentary on a public interest group that has been critical of him:

They do have bias and economic interest, in that they collect a substantial portion of their income from representing whistleblowers in legal proceedings. We act in the public interest based on law and fact, but outside advocacy groups can do what they want with impunity. We don’t blame employees for expressing dissatisfaction, but we expect lawyers and advocacy groups that hold themselves out as acting in the public interest to be more honest and responsible.

OSC Budget Request Criticized

Government Executive reports that the Office of Special Counsel request for additional funds to investigate alleged political briefings has run into criticism by the Government Accountability Project, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and the Project on Government Oversight.

OMB Distributes OGE Pamphlet on Ethics and Procurement

Last week OMB distributed copies of the new OGE pamphlet on ethics and procurment integrity mentioned here last month to Chief Acquistion Officers and senior procurement executives, with a request that they further publicize the pamphlet. Personnel at your agency may have follow-up questions.

The cover letter noted that the pamphlet would be "particularly helpful to agency personnel whom may not have extensive acquisition training yet perform acquisition functions."

Reminder: IEC Meeting Thursday

The October IEC meeting will be held this Thursday. See our previous announcement for details.

Opening at Dept. of Energy for GS-12/13

The Department of Energy has an opening for a GS-301-12/13 Ethics Program Specialist with promotion potential to GS 14. Closing date is Oct. 23. More information is available in two USA Jobs announcements:

• Civil Service Status
• Non Civil Service Status

DoD Guidance on Combined Federal Campaign

Thanks to the Department of Defense OGC's Standards of Conduct Office for the newest edition of its  newsletter. It is a timely "special edition" summarizing issues around support of the Combined Federal Campaign fundraising drive.

OTS Recruiting Lawyer

The Office of Thrift Supervision is looking for an attorney to handle a number of areas, including litigation, ethics, and disclosure work. The closing date is October 16. A copy of the announcement is available.

Opening at NIH for GS 11-13 Ethics Specialist

The NIH Ethics Office, National Institutes of Health, Dept. of Health & Human Services, has an opening for a GS-301-11/12/13 Ethics Specialist. The closing date is Oct. 23. The USA Jobs announcement has details.

Poll Finds Confidence in Government Low

Editor and Publisher reports on a new Gallop poll showing a loss of confidence in government. Some of the poll's low-lights:

-- Barely half of Americans, 51%, say they have a "great deal" or "fair amount" of trust in the federal government to handle international problems.

-- Less than half of Americans, 47%, now have at least a fair amount of trust in the federal government to handle domestic problems.

Thanks to Government Executive's Fedblog for the link.

Requesting A Certificate of Divestiture

OGE's suggested format for requesting a certificate of divestiture is available in MS Word and PDF formats.

OnlineTraining: Working with Contractors: What You Need to Know

OGE's new online course called Working with Contractors: What You Need to Know is available. OGE's introduction describes the course as:

[A]n interactive web-based training module that is designed as an introduction to some of the most common ethics questions that Government employees might encounter when working with contractor employees. It particularly may be useful for Government employees who work closely with employees of Government contractors who are situated in a Government Facility.

October Deadline

Reminder of the October date fom the 2007 OGE Calendar:

The Public Financial Disclosure reports of PAS, DAEO, and other persons whose Public Financial Disclosure reports are required to be forwarded to OGE for review and certification who were granted second 45-day extensions are due October 31.