IEC Journal

OGE: Document Ethics Advice, Work With IGs

OGE responds to a GAO report entitled Post-Government Employment Restrictions and Foreign Agent Registration: Additional Action Needed to Enhance Implementation of Requirements 12-16 (July 2008), by providing the following guidance:

OGE strongly encourages agency ethics officials to document ethics advice provided to current and former employees.  Additionally, ethics officials should establish close working relationships with their respective Inspector General offices.  This includes providing Inspector General personnel with information when needed about the ethics advice given to specific individuals.  This also may include providing training and other assistance to help Inspector General personnel understand better the criminal conflict of interest laws, standards of conduct, and pertinent supplemental agency regulations.

Gov Exec Reviews Hatch Act, OSC

Government Executive magazine has an interesting overview (here & here) of the Hatch Act and the Office of Special Counsel, including many links to related articles.

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Assessing Your Training Quality: See Yourself As Others See You

O wad some Power the giftie gie us,
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae mony a blunder free us ...

These lines from "To A Louse On Seeing One On A Lady's Bonnett at Church," possibly the "Greatest Hit" of Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759-1796), are relevant to ethics training. "Seeing ourselves as others see us" can be a welcome antidote to complacency as we try to comply with OGE's requirements for initial ethics orientation (5 C.F.R. § 2638.703). Getting feedback from trainees, or even better, having a neutral evaluator go through the training experience, can be an eye-opener. Here's a comment one new employee offered when asked about the initial ethics orientation offered by her agency:

As for my own experience with ethics training/the handout I received I have to say, it was pretty pathetic. If you look closely at the packet I was given, some of the pages are not even readable. I don’t know if the problem was with the printer or whatever, but it seems pretty useless to print out all those documents, if some of them, you can’t even read. There was basically no training whatsoever on ethics or the standards for things like breaks, lunches, what you should/should not talk about, etc. It was mostly a "give this a look" type thing.

Do you know how many new employees would rate your agency's initial ethics orientation as "pretty pathetic"?

Living In The Fishbowl

News media treatment of the recent bust of a phony diploma mill provides another illustration of the higher standards applied to federal employees.  As reported in USA Today and numerous other publications, the leader of the operation was sentenced to three years in prison for conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud. Her daughter was sentenced to a year in prison, and the family agreed to forfeit $535,000 in cash and their late-model Jaguar.

The diploma mill contained about 9,000 names in its customer database. Though only about a hundred or so of these names could be identified as federal employees, the headline for the USA Today story focused on those few:

Probe: Fed employees may have bought fake degrees

By this time, the news media pattern should be clear: Federal employees are favorite targets.  This unfortunate fact raises the already high stakes for ethics officers.

Getting In Touch With Us

An IEC member recently had trouble sending us an e-mail, possibly because her browser or e-mail program was not correctly configured. If your web browser and e-mail software are properly set up, then selecting the "Contact Us" or "Send Us Job Announcements" links in your web browser should cause your e-mail software to start a new message, addressed to us. If this does not work for you, you can use the following address to send general e-mail:

iecjournal123@yahoo.com

Use this address for job announcements:

iec.jobs@yahoo.com

These are "disposable" addresses; we'll change them if they begin attracting too much spam, and announce their replacements.

Hosting Political Events

The Fedmanager newsletter examines the issue of when a federal employee can host a political event at their home without violating the Hatch Act.

Role of Contractors in the Workplace

Government Executive has a story Across the Divide with some ideas on balancing the roles of contractors and civil servants. Their last bullet point sounds an awfully lot like the "code of conduct" for contractors advocated by OGE Director Ric Cusick. Our related post on GAO's view of contractor conflicts of interest and a link to OGE's course on working with contractors are available. Many posts on related topics are archived under the heading Contractors in the Workplace.

Update 9/20: Cecilia Owens points out that due to the OGE web site remodeling, there is an updated link to OGE's course mentioned above.

Organizational Conflicts of Interest

The Washington Post has a story about organizational conflicts of interest. Here's an exceprt:

The case offers a rare glimpse at one of the consequences of the government's unprecedented reliance on contractors to help federal agencies: Consultants sometimes gain insider knowledge and help draft rules that could benefit their own bottom lines, procurement specialists said.

Because the acquisition workforce has not kept pace with the massive expansion of outsourcing in recent years, such conflicts rarely come to light. When they do, the government often is not able to address the problems, specialists said.

"This is the top of the iceberg," said Daniel Guttman, a procurement specialist at Johns Hopkins University who brought the case to the government's attention. "The government has basically never publicly reviewed whether the conflict of interests rules work. They don't."

Thanks to Ellen Peterson for drawing this story to our attention and Eric Rishel for highlighting its significance.

Court of Claims finds DAEO determination arbitrary and capricious in excluding contract bidder

Court of Federal Claims found DAEO determination that contractor must be excluded from bid on contract because former employee had a post-government employment restriction was arbitrary and capricious.  See CNA Corp. v. US, No. 08-249C, 81 Fed. Cl. 722 (Apr. 30, 2008). 

Subsequent CFC post-award bid protest order goes into addition details.  See Download cfc_decision1.pdf

DOI Ten Point Ethics Plan

Incoming agency heads in some other agencies might get some useful ideas from the ten point list at the end of a Department of the Interior memo posted at the PEER web site.

OGE Web Site Upgrade

The OGE web site has undergone a significant upgrade. It appears to be a tremendous improvement, both substantive and esthetic.  Among the many enhancements:

1. Deletion of the initial warning banner. These are essential for private agency networks, but the omission from its site brings OGE in line with other federal agencies that find this unnecessary on sites intended to be publicly-accessible.
2. The site uses a blog-type approach to archiving old announcements that makes them more accessible, plus a more efficient way of letting users choose between downloading formats.

One possible additonal improvement: Unlock the font sizes, so that viewers have the option to select a larger font in their browsers. Older users may particularly appreciate this.

Former interior employee pleads guilty to COI

Senior official getting ready to retire explored ways he could return to work for the Department of Interior after retirement as a consultant, including drafting the statement of work for the consultancy.  See http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2008/July/08-crm-672.html

OGE Conference Hotel Deadline

The stated deadline for reserving rooms at the Rosen Center Hotel (reviews here) is Friday, August 15 at 5:00 P.M. To obtain the conference rate, mention when calling the reservation number (800-204-7234) that you are attending the 16th National Government Ethics Conference. The hotel offers the conference rate for three days before and three days after the Conference. The OGE web site has more information about the conference.

VA OIG & Legal Times Lead Way on RSS Feeds

RSS adoption continues to increase in popularity. The Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General web site includes a good explanation of RSS feeds, as well as links to explanations of how to use them generally and with the Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers. Announcements of audits and reports are a great use for RSS, and the VA OIG deserves credit for making its information accessible to the public in this manner.

Law.com has a number of RSS feeds (including one for job announcements), and even provides a free RSS reader configured to pick up the most popular ones.

As noted previously, RSS feeds are the most convenient way to keep up with frequently-updated web sites that have adopted this new technology, including the IEC Journal. While dedicated RSS readers are probably more powerful than browser-based RSS access, browser-based access is better than no RSS access.

USDA Ethics Office vacancies

The USDA Ethics Office has several openings listed on USA Jobs. Once under Department of Agriculture, interested parties can search "office of ethics." http://jobsearch.usajobs.gov/jobsearch.asp?q=%22office+of+ethics%22&salmin=&salmax=&paygrademin=&paygrademax=&FedEmp=N&tm=&sort=rv&vw=d&brd=3876&ss=0&FedPub=Y&SUBMIT1.x=0&SUBMIT1.y=0

• GS 7/8/9 Assistants-6 openings [closes August 25-governmentwide]
• GS-13 Specialists-2 openings [closes August 25-all sources & competitive]
• GS-14 Supervisory Ethics Specialist [Forestry Branch]-1 opening [closes August 26-all sources & competitive]
• GS-14 Senior Ethics Specialist-1 opening [closes August 26-all sources & competitive]

Hatch Act A Mystery To Some

Fedblog's Tom Shoop reports on three Michigan mail carriers discovered to hold simultaneous local elected government offices:

One of the officials, Tresha Graham-Mikek, a rural letter carrier, has been in office as Bethany Township clerk for 12 years. "I don't know what putting letters in mailboxes has to do with being a township clerk," she told the paper. "I've been a carrier for 23 years and the clerk for 12, and it's never been an issue. But the law is the law, and I understand that."

Attending Political Conventions

A useful July 29, 2008 memo on the topic "Attending Events at National Conventions" is attached.

HHS Supervisory Atty Vacancy (GS-15) Announcement Extended

The vacancy announcement for the hyperlinked position has been extended until August 20, 2008. 

http://jobsearch.usajobs.gov/getjob.asp?JobID=74581489&brd=3876&AVSDM=2008-08-06+15:30:57&q=OS-2008-0106&sort=rv&vw=d&Logo=0&FedPub=Y&FedEmp=N&SUBMIT1.x=98&SUBMIT1.y=16&ss=0&TabNum=6&rc=2

Ira Kaye

We are deeply saddened by the passing of our colleague, Ira Kaye.  Ira was a longstanding active member of the ethics community as a counselor and attorney at the Federal Trade Commission, the Office of Government Ethics, and, most recently, at the Department of Treasury, where he served as Alternate DAEO.  Ira was always willing to help other ethics officials who had issues or questions.  He conducted sessions at OGE annual conferences and was scheduled to run a workshop at next month's conference.  We will miss Ira's wisdom, kindness, and warmth.  He was a true friend to us.

Course: "Ethical Decision Making for Financial Managers"

A company called Management Concepts is hosting a course in Washington Aug 25-26 on the topic "Ethical Decision Making for Financial Managers." It is "designed for federal financial management personnel and other interested in ethics in the federal government. Course topics include ethics in government, resources and guidance on government ethics, and ethical challenges encountered by government financial management personnel." The company's web site has more information.

Additional handout for IEC Copyright Presentation

Download IEC2.doc

DOD OIG FOIA Reading Room

"It can't happen to me." Sound familiar?

Real life examples of high ranking officials whose disregard for ethics rules led to problems are one of the best ways to undercut this overconfident view.

The Department of Defense Office of Inspector General's Freedom of Information Act "Electronic Reading Room" is a good place to look for cautionary tales to use in training. It archives files expected to be the frequent subject of FOIA requests, thus saving the agency processing time and reducing access time for the public. The reports available there include the following:

"Alleged Improprieties Related To Public Speaking: Lieutenant General William G. Boykin, U.S. Army Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence", August 5, 2004

Alleged Misconduct: General Kevin P. Byrnes, U.S. Army Commanding General U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, July 29, 2005

Alleged Misconduct: Vice Admiral John D. Stufflebeem, U.S. Navy Director, Navy Staff, March 19, 2008

New OGE Crossword Puzzle Available

The newest OGE training crossword puzzle is on the subject of SF 278 Financial Disclosure. The DAEOgram announcing it has information on system requirements.

Code of Conduct for Transitions

Here is a copy of a Transition Code of Conduct used in the 2000 Presidential transition.

New Whistleblower Protection Proposal

Government Executive has an article on new proposals to protect whistleblowers that emerged at a conference on whistleblower rights sponsored by the Government Accountability Project and American University's Washington College of Law. Gov Exec notes:

Strengthening whistleblower protections is considered imperative for many advocacy groups and public and private sector employees, especially since the landmark law safeguarding whistleblowers -- the 1989 Whistleblower Protection Act -- has been weakened by a series of rulings by the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals since 1994. Panelists said the courts have rewritten the laws to create loopholes that significantly undermine the law.

Updated Aug. 4 to improve clarity.

Meeting Reminder & Handouts

Do your clients ever ask you questions about copyright law? Mine sure do. Copyright law and related ethics issues will be the subject of the next IEC meeting, scheduled for Thursday, August 7. The presenters will be:

• Karen Santoro, National Science Foundation
• Jeff Green, Department of Defense Standards of Conduct Office, and
• Bonnie Klein, a Copyright Specialist on the Technical Reports Team, Defense Technical Information Center.

Meeting location and other details are available in a previous post. Here are some handouts and reference materials:

1. Slides on Copyright in U.S. Government Works Published by Third-Parties 
2. CENDI copyright FAQ
3. Federal Practitioner article and related Herbert decision

OGE Calendar: August

Excerpts from the 2008 OGE Calendar:

August 1 DUE TO OGE: 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 are due today unless an extension has been granted.

August 14 DUE TO AGENCY ETHICS OFFICALS: All annual Public Financial Disclosure reports granted second 45-day extensions are due today. (5 CFR § 2634.201(f))