IEC Journal

Whistleblower Ruling Stirs Controversy

Joe Davidson's Washington Post Federal Diary column examines a controversial MSBP decision. An excerpt:

Until Congress acts, the Whistleblower Protection Act is dead," said Tom Devine, legal director of the Government Accountability Project. "The MacLean decision means government agencies can fire employees for any disclosure otherwise protected by the WPA. The decision reduces the WPA to a voluntary guideline that agencies can cancel at will by issuing blanket gag regulations."

But Devine and other advocates, including those in Congress, aren't willing to let the law pass away peacefully. Rather than grieving, they are using the decision as evidence in their long battle to pass stronger whistleblower protections.

More views from Government Accountability Project are available.

Examples of Gift Ethics Issues

Writing in the Washington Post, Al Kamen's discussion of VIP-level gifts from foreign governments provides good teaching examples. Who would have guessed that a Singapore official would give President George W. Bush a "Creative Zen MP3 Player and an OSIM uSqueez Calf and Foot Massager."

OGE Training Schedule

Updated July 1 to correct time of Sept. 29 program.

OGE has announced an ambitious program of training over the next few months, with a highlight being their Sept. 29 program on travel issues featuring the ever-popular Lenny Loewentritt.

Issue With DOJ Nominee Withholding Client Names?

The Washington Times reports:

The criminal defense lawyer nominated by President Obama to be the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey is declining to identify more than half of his private clients on government forms designed to help the public guard against potential conflicts of interests.

Paul J. Fishman, nominated to serve as the U.S. attorney for New Jersey, is citing the privacy interests of the clients - an exemption that is permitted under federal ethics laws, but that leaves prosecutors on an honor system to police their own conflicts, ethics watchdogs say.

AmeriCorps IG Updates

Talking Point Memo provides continuing updates on the controversy over the firing of AmeriCorps IG Gerald Walpin.

Export-Import Ethics/FOIA attorney vacancy (GS-14)

The Export-Import Bank of the United States, an independent federal agency, is looking for an Ethics/FOIA attorney at the GS-14 level. All inquiries can be sent to me at faisal.siddiqui@exim.gov or (202) 565-3435.

Query re: Defined Benefit Plans

An IEC member asks:

Has anyone reviewed various corporate defined benefit pension plans and determined that they are entitled to a regulatory waiver under OGE criteria?

Years ago OGE had published a list of certain corporate pensions that met this goal, but it's apparently no longer available. Does anyone have it?

If you have an answer, forward to the "Contact Us" link at left and we will post. Let us know whether to keep your name anonymous.

July 9th Meeting

Our July 9th meeting will feature Chip Christopher, of the Office of Government Ethics, who will talk about the OGE agency program reviews.  If your agency has not had a program review in recent years, particularly if you’ve had significant office turnover since your last OGE review and are wondering if you’re prepared for your next one, this will be an extremely valuable opportunity to hear Chip’s insights into the process.

 

Please note that our July meeting is scheduled for the second Thursday of the month, a departure from our usual scheduling practice.  However, as usual, we will meet from 12:15-1:30 in the OTS auditorium and, as always, 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@fcc.gov not later than Monday, July 6th.  Those who are neither on the IEC roster nor pre-registered can still be admitted by showing a Government ID to OTS Security personnel.

Fiscal Law Issues in Purchasing Clothing

It's not unusual for ethics officers to receive questions about appropriations law, such as the use of appropriated funds to buy clothing items. Mark Stone recently provided some tips on research sources in his newsletter:

1.  On the website of the Government Accountability Office (GAO), there is a January 2004, 640-page PDF document entitled "Principles of Federal Appropriations Law, Third Edition, Volume I."  On pages 495-501 of the PDF document there is a seven-page discussion of dozens of legal authorities on use of appropriated funds to purchase wearing apparel for U.S. government employees.  It is probably the most detailed treatment of the subject anywhere. GAO’s May 2009 update to the Third Edition does not contain any additional guidance on this issue.

2.  There is a 2008 Ethics Counselor's Deskbook on the website of the DoD Standards of Conduct Office (DoD/GC-SOCO). The Deskbook has a 69-page chapter entitled “Fiscal Law Overview.”  Use of appropriated funds to buy clothing is addressed on pages E-22 and E-23.

Mark's original included some Air Force-specific cites.  The complete posting is available at the Air Force Materiel Command ethics website.

Obama Ousts Top AmeriCorps IG

Time magazine reports on the President's decision to fire IG Gerald Walpin. TPM Muckraker gives its perspective.  ABC's Jake Tapper provides details on the firing.

Saudi Gift Issues

Thanks to Karen Santoro for drawing to our attention a Politico article about practical issues involved in handling expensive ceremonial gifts from the Saudi government to U.S. officials.

Whistleblowers Seek Jury Trials

Joe Davidson's Federal Diary column examines Hill efforts to expand whistleblower protection. An excerpt:

Whistleblowers need "full access to court to enforce their rights through a jury trial," said Tom Devine, legal director of the Government Accountability Project.

But the Obama administration, which is generally sympathetic to whistleblower rights, has not embraced the concept of jury trials to protect those rights. When Rajesh De, a deputy assistant attorney general, testified before the House, his testimony was notable for what it didn't say about jury trials.

"So far, the administration seems glued to the fence on that issue," Devine said.

Controversy Over Ethics Pledge Waivers

A Politico story discusses the controversy over waivers of the Obama ethics pledge. Here's an excerpt:

Robert Cusick, director of the Office of Government Ethics, told POLITICO he did not know definitively how many ethics waivers had been granted, but he said “there’s been no great surge of waivers.”

Unlike waivers, which have to be approved by White House ethics lawyer Norm Eisen and are on file at the White House, letters of recusal are kept at the agency employing the official and are more difficult to track, Cusick said.

Cusick, who was appointed by former President George W. Bush in 2006 to a five-year term, said Obama’s ethics order has taxed his agency’s capacity. “We have quite a number of things that we’re required to do under the ethics executive order, which we’re still gearing up for,” he said.

Nonetheless, he disagreed with Grassley’s contention that the administration has not lived up to its promises of openness when it comes to the ethics order.

Thanks to Paul Bergstrand for the lead. We live or die by reader contributions, and appreciate those like Paul who help us keep this site fresh and useful.

Pentagon Acceptance of Free Trips

An Associated Press story discusses ethical implications of Pentagon officials accepting gifts of travel from from foreign countries, trade groups and companies with an interest in shaping policies or doing business with the U.S. military. The Center for Public Integrity broke the story and set up a database to facilitate tracking such travel in a joint project with Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.

Thanks to Paul Bergstrand for the tip.

Two ethics vacancies as USDA Office of Ethics

The USDA Office of Ethics has extended its advertisement for a GS-14 Senior Ethics Specialist until June 17, 2009.  Here is the link: Link to Senior Ethics Specialist Position.  They are also advertising a GS-13 Ethics Specialist position, which also closes on June 17, 2009, at Link to Ethics Specialist Position.  We request any interested parties call Mike Edwards at (202) 720-2251, when submitting an application.

Johnson Tips on Receiving IEC Journal Updates by Email

Thanks to Wayne L. Johnson for providing the following explanation of options for receiving IEC Journal updates by email.  There is an alternate method of learning about updates that may appeal to some:  Make IEC Journal the home page in your web browser.  This will cause your web browser to visit IEC Journal every time you start it up.  To do this in Microsoft Internet Explorer, go to the IEC Journal web site, then select browser menu options Tools | Internet Options | General. Then select the option Use Current:

Some of you may have noticed that you are no longer getting update emails concerning new material being posted on the Interagency Ethics Council (IEC) Journal web page through the rssfwd service. That is because the rssfwd system is no longer providing this service. See Jan. 29, 2009 entry at the RSS FWD blog.

After doing some investigating and testing, I have come up with two other means to get IEC Journal email update notices. In the alternative – or at least initially to make sure you are getting the email updates after you sign up for at least one of the below services - you may just want to check the IEC web site, http://www.iecjournal.org/, every few days to see if there has been anything added.

There are two email update services to do this through: FeedBlitz and Google. For both services you have to create an account. You can use your government email address – you do not have to get a gmail email account with Google – and then sign up to receive updates for "IEC Journal" (in quotation marks).

FeedBlitz: Go to: https://www.feedblitz.com/f/f.fbz?Subscriptions. Select the phrase "Not registered? Click on Sign Up Here" and follow the instructions. After getting signed up you will get an email to acknowledge this to which you must send a confirming response. Then you will need to sign in again at https://www.feedblitz.com/f/f.fbz?Subscriptions. Click on Updates via Feedblitz, then click on Subscribe, and then type in http://www.iecjournal.org/ and hit subscribe. You will then get an acknowledgement email saying you are signed up for the "IEC Journal". You must also respond to this email confirming you want to get email updates to the IEC Journal. For more information on FeedBlitz see http://www.iecjournal.org/iec/about/

Google: Go to Google Alerts at http://www.google.com/support/alerts/ and create an alert for updates to "IEC Journal" IN QUOTES.

You may want to try both services and after a few weeks decide which system you like best and cancel the other.

There are probably other ways to accomplish the above, but I have found these two systems fairly easy to figure out and that they work well once you get everything set up. One can also use the above two systems to track other subject matters you want to be kept up to date on.

IG Independence Allegations

The Washington Post reports that Senator Grassley and his staff are looking into allegations of infringement on Inspector General independence at some federal agencies.

Australian Def. Minister quits over Std of Conduct breach

The minister quit after allowed his brother to use a gov't office for a commercial meeting.  The underlying suggestion is that he misused his public office for the private benefit of his brother's employer, allowing them special access to gov't officials and inferring some form of preferential treatment.  See full article at  http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=aPPicSOAGh0c&refer=australia .  But that isn't all, he also failed to properly report gifts received from foreign businesswoman. 

Dept. of Education Supervisory Attorney vacancy (GS 15)

DOE Office of General Counsel has a vacancy for a supervisory attorney in their ethics division.  The vacacancy remains open until June 16, 2009.  See full annoucement at http://jobview.usajobs.gov/GetJob.aspx?JobID=81136370&JobTitle=Supervisory+General+Attorney%2c+GS-905-15&q=bepartment+of+education&sort=rv%2c-dtex&vw=b&re=134&FedEmp=N&FedPub=Y&caller=default.aspx&jbf574=EDEG&AVSDM=2009-05-26+00%3a03%3a00

"Social Web" Implicates Ethical Issues

A NextGov article discusses GSA's move to enable agencies to use modern social media tools and concludes:

The Federal Web Managers Council is working with agencies to craft policies for using social media tools, but the rules aren't likely to be much different from existing guidelines on releasing information publicly, according to Campbell. "I think the same rules and ethics apply," she said. "If you're on Twitter, you shouldn't be posting confidential information, just as you wouldn't if speaking at a conference."

GSA general counsel Seth Greenfield said any new social media policies would only complement existing ethical standards and regular use policies being applied to the use of IT.