IEC Journal

Ex-NY State Supreme Court Judge convicted of Bribery

Thomas J. Spargo was convicted of extortion and bribery for receipt of payments from attorneys with cases before him.  See full DOJ press release at http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2009/August/09-crm-881.html

Corrruption Indictment includes Gov Ethics implications

The newest indictment in the Jack Abramoff investigation implicates Government ethics rules relating to gifts and financial disclosures.  The former chief of staff at the Labor Department's Employment Standards Administration has been indicted on corruption charges related to his dealings with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

See GovExec article at http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=43463&dcn=e_gvet

See indictment at http://www.govexec.com/pdfs/082409rb1.pdf

New OLC 207 opinions

Thanks to Jeff Green, below are two recently posted DOJ Office of Legal Counsel opinions relating to application of post-Government employment restrictions.

• Foreign Trade or Treaty restrictions.  The opinion discusses how a foreign corporation even if it is over 50% owned by a foreign government still has to exercise sovereign control to be a "foreign government."  It also indicates that an editorial in a newspaper could constitute intent to influence.  http://www.usdoj.gov/olc/2008/commerceoppost-employment.pdf
• When are you acting on behalf of the US?  Someone representing a former President before the National Archives is considered acting for the United States, one of the 207 exceptions, and therefore not violating 18 U.S.C. 207.  http://www.usdoj.gov/olc/2001/post-employment-restrictions.pdf (dated 2001 but only posted this month).

Fed pleads guilt to kickback scheme

A former VA employee pleads guilty to a bribery scheme relating to false veterans disability claims in excess of $1.9M.  See full DOJ Press Release at http://louisville.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel09/lo081809.htm

September 3rd Meeting

Our September 3rd meeting will feature OPM’s Wade Plunkett and Susan Whitman, who will address various aspects of the Combined Federal Campaign of particular interest to agency ethics officials.  Summer may not be over, but CFC season is just around the corner.  For us that means a host of ethics questions and concerns on solicitations, gifts, voluntary activities, contractor involvement, and many other aspects of fundraising.  Our September speakers will not only explain the relevant rules on CFC but guide us through the ethics thicket to keep our employees on the right track.  You won’t want to miss this presentation. 

 

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.  Agency 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, August 31st.  Those who are neither on the IEC roster nor pre-registered can still be admitted by showing a Government ID to OTS Security personnel.

 

We’d also like to take a moment to once again remind our membership to frequently check this website for word of future meetings, ethics job openings and other news of interest to the Federal ethics community.  As we’ve indicated previously, if you’ve noticed a lack of email notices lately, the RSS Feed service that a lot of us used was shut down a while back, so you need to resubscribe in order to receive future notices of postings.  Please read our April 1 posting regarding receiving email notices of IEC postings.  It describes one option called FeedBlitz that seems to work well for many of us.  You can get to the April 1 posting by clicking on the link associated with that date on the calendar on the top right side of our homepage.

IG Report on VA official misuse of position

A recent Veterans Administration IG report sustained charges of misuse of position for personal gain against a VA Deputy Assistant Secretary of IT in addition to abuse of authority and prohibited personnel paractices.  See redacted report at http://www.va.gov/oig/51/fy2009rpts/VAOIG-09-01123-195.pdf

Former NASA Official Convicted of Steering Contracts

An Associated Press story reports that a "special government employee" at NASA was convicted recently of steering millions of dollars to consulting clients. The article provides in part:

When Mary Cleave, acting director of NASA's Earth-Sun System Division and a former astronaut, decided to conduct a nationwide search for bids for the earth science earmark, officials at Mississippi State were upset that they may not get the funds, according to e-mails introduced as evidence. Stadd's contact at the university e-mailed him asking if he could "provide some prodding" from inside the agency.

Cleave testified that Stadd summoned her to his office and told her only $3 million should be put out for nationwide bids. The remaining $12 million, he told Cleave, should go to Mississippi because of an agreement between the state's congressional delegation.

Afterward, Stadd tried to get the university to raise his fee from $7,000 a month to $10,000 a month, citing his help with the funding.

A related Washington Post article has more information.

Time for Fantasy Football Reminder?

Fantasy football leagues s seem to be gaining on NCAA pools in popularity.  This may be a good time to remind your workforce about the applicable law, including 41 C.F.R. § 102-74.395, which forbids all persons entering in or on Federal property from participating in games for money or other personal property, operating gambling devices, conducting a lottery or pool, or selling or purchasing numbers tickets.

 

Page 69 of the DOD "Encyclopedia of Ethical Failure" lists a couple of fantasy football league examples.

Drug Chief at FDA accused of Conflict

The Wall Street Journal reports the apparent conflict of interest allegagion against Janet Woodcock, Director of FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation, because of a scientific paper she co-authored with a prohibited source--allegations include providing that party special access, even where there was a recusal in place.  Perception is everything.  See full article at  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125003545637224263.html

OSC Moves Against VA Med Center Admin Officer

The Office of Special Counsel announced that it is seeking the removal of a Department of Veteran Affairs Medical Center administrative officer for engaging in prohibited political activity in the workplace. The officer is alleged to have sent over 30 e-mails directed toward the success of parties or candidates in the 2008 Presidential election. OSC Press Release 8 11 09 is available.

Follow-up to Article on Relationships of Contracting Officials

We have posted a better link to last Friday's featured Washington Post article. Following the links there leads to associated items, including a timeline and the transcript of a lively on-line discussion with the author of the article that includes this interchange:

[End of a long reader comment]: Please, authors, comment on the fact as Acquisitions officials we have mandatory ethics training every 12 months. In addition we have mandatory financial reporting on an annual basis. We are bombarded with the ethical code at every training. The fact the CO never saw the ethical line that was crossed is absolute malarkey. I know the line. I choose to not cross it.

Robert O'Harrow Jr.: Thank you for your thoughtful remarks. We have heard such frustration and concerns many times over the last several years, while focusing much attention on federal contracting. The legal and ethical lines are drawn a lot more clearly in regulations and law than some people seem to realize. It's important to note that the procurement system is under a great deal of stress because of the surge in outsourcing. We have found that contracting officials are often overwhelmed by the workload.

OSC Activity

The Office of Special Counsel has posted several new press releases at its website, on topics including but not limited to the following:

 

PR09_11-- A Hatch Act complaint about a supervisor at DIA attempting to influence his employees in the 2008 Presidential election.

 

PR09_10-- An OSC finding that the Department of Transportation was derelict in failing to respond to aviation safety allegations.

 

PR09_09-- A Hatch Act complaint against a USPS employee for running in a partisan political election last fall.

 

PR09_06-- A Hatch Act complaint against a VA doctor for using his position to influence the 2008 Presidential election.

NY Times article on former Sec. of Treasury Paulson

Indepth article discussing appearance concerns related to former Secretary of Treasury, Henry Paulson, and his calls to and from his former employer, Goldman Sachs.  See the full article at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/business/09paulson.html?_r=1&dbk=&pagewanted=print 

Too cozy for comfort?

Updated October19 with better link to article:

Article on the appearance of impropriety of an Army procurement official and his relationship with a contractor.

The full article is available.

GAO on Retired Military Officers as Media Analysts Controversy

The Government Accountability Office has issued an opinion on a fiscal law question related to the controversy over retired military officers acting as analysts for major news outlets. The opinion does not deal with standards of conduct issues, but it is of some interest to ethics officials. Here is the GAO summary:

The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009 mandated that GAO provide its opinion to Congress on whether the Department of Defense (DOD) violated the appropriations prohibition on publicity or propaganda in its 2002 through 2008 outreach to retired military officers (RMO) who served as media analysts. GAO concluded that the outreach program did not violate the publicity or propaganda prohibition. Although there is no doubt that DOD attempted to favorably influence public opinion with respect to DOD's war policies in Iraq and Afghanistan through RMOs with conference calls, meetings, travel and access to senior DOD officials, GAO found no evidence that DOD attempted to conceal its outreach from the public nor was there evidence that DOD contracted with or paid RMOs for positive commentary or analysis.

The opinion does not address questions raised about the RMOs' commercial ties and potential competitive advantage or possible compromised DOD procurement processes because those questions, while legitimate, did not, in our view, implicate the publicity or propaganda prohibition and, thus, were outside the scope of the opinion. For similar reasons, this opinion does not examine whether the RMOS disclosed to the viewing public or the networks whether they had commercial ties to DOD contractors or other possible conflicts of interests.

B-316443, Department of Defense--Retired Military Officers as Media Analysts, July 21, 2009.

MSPB upholds removal, including ethics related charges

See full case at: Social Security Administration v.

London Steverson,

2009 MSPB 143(2009)

 

ALJ was removed for misuse of Government resources, including

• Misuse of letterhead and title for personal activities

• Misuse of government equipment for personal activities (sexually-oriented material on his government-issued computer and using his government computer to support a personal private business)