IEC Journal

2012 Ethics Calendar

As we begin the new year, where would be be without the 2012 OGE Schedule of Important Ethics Dates?

OGE extends comment period on proposed rule: Lobbyist gift ban for all

The Federal Register includes an extension of the comment period for the proposed amendment to 5 CFR 2635.203 which would extend the prohibition on acceptance of gifts from registered lobbyists to all Federal personnel (not just Political appointees under the Ethics Pledge).  See http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-11-15/pdf/2011-29569.pdf.  Comments are now due NLT: December 14, 2011.

IEC Member Fights Link Rot on OGE Website

"Link rot" refers to the process whereby hypertext links to a website go bad, through redesign or other reasons. While the Office of Government Ethics website upgrade provided many improvements, it had the unfortunate effect of breaking many links that other websites had built to OGE.

IEC member Wayne Johnson has taken the initiative to compile a list of bad OGE links, and has generously shared it with us. Rather than try to squeeze his memo into this narrow space, we are making it available in two files for downloading, in your choice of formats:

Download OGE_Link_Corrections Hypertext version

Download OGE_Link_Corrections MS Word version

OGE Conference Archives

Need to access the archives of the 2011 OGE Conference? The OGE website contains links to the archives of conferences back to 2005, but there is currently no link for the 2011 conference. The archives are available here (http://ethicsconf18.crowdcompass.com/activities).

Proposed OGE changes to Qualified Trust regs

The Office of Government Ethics proposes to amend the executive branch regulation regarding qualified trusts. The proposed amendments would make a few minor substantive changes, but would primarily put the regulation in a more logical order, make it more readable, and eliminate redundant provisions.  See http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-09-30/pdf/2011-25221.pdf

Discussion on OGE proposal to expand Lobbying Gift Ban to all Federal Employees

Washington Post article discussing the proposed OGE rule to expand lobbying gift ban to all Federal employees.  See http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/limits-tighten-for-lobbyist-gift-giving/2011/09/28/gIQAh6RT5K_story.html 

OGE Leadership Resources

Since everyone seriously interested in ethics issues should subscribe to OGE's mailing list, to avoid duplication we usually avoid reposting OGE mailing list items here. However, the following item seemed particularly valuable, so we'll republish it here, in the interest of providing another place for researchers to locate it:

A Reminder of Resources Available to Ethics Officials - Leadership Involvement  

Are you looking for new ways to involve leadership in the ethics program?  

One agency increased the number of reports timely filed by having filer’s submit their reports directly to their Director’s office. Another agency included leadership in the process to identify annual training content.  Read more about these practices HERE.  

Another resource available is the Leadership Initiative which contains more than 50 concrete actions leadership can take to promote an ethical culture and to show support of your ethics program. Lastly, you may find ideas in the leadership section of the Final Report issued for the Cabinet-Level Benchmarking project last year.

No more gifts from Lobbyists?

In a September 18, 2011, posting, we alerted you to the proposed OGE expansion of the Ethics Pledge lobbyist gift ban to all career Federal employees.  If you did not see it, please note that the proposed rule was published in the Federal Register for notice and comment.  See http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-09-13/pdf/2011-23311.pdf.  Comments are due before November 14, 2011.

In sum, the proposed rule would make certain exceptions to the general prohibition on gifts from outside sources, 5 CFR 2635.202, unavailable for gifts from registered lobbyists.  The exceptions that would be unavailable would include the $20 deminimus & widely-attended gathering exceptions.  It would also provide implementing guidance.  For example, it defines the lobbysts for these purposes to exclude  501(c)(3) non-profit lobbyists.

OGE Conference Thoughts (Open Thread)

A rew reactions to the 2011 OGE Conference:

1. Excellent overall organization, with many thoughtful touches to enhance the learning experience. OGE deserves credit for being willing to experiment with something as innovative as the smartphone app, though there were a few glitches. Some felt that the related website was a less than optimal solution for those without smartphones, while not everyone with a smartphone was enamoured with the app.
2. There are a lot of smart people throughout the government doing a lot of smart things. The conference provides a great start on improving efficiency through inter-agency sharing, but resource limitations and institutional constraints put a limit on what OGE can do. There is more that the IEC, and this website in particular could do to fill the gaps.

We have enabled the Comments function to allow others to share their impressions.

OGE Proposes to Expand Lobbyist Gift Ban

The Hill reports:

A new regulation proposed this week by the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) would prohibit all federal government employees from accepting any gifts from lobbyists.  

Originally, the absolute ban on lobbyist gifts was only applied to political appointees, per President Obama’s executive order on ethics that was signed early on in his administration. But if the proposed rule is finalized, it would expand the order’s tough restrictions on lobbyist gifts to career employees in the federal government as well.  

The regulation also would codify the stringent lobbyist gift ban implemented by Obama’s executive order, meaning the strict limits on the interaction between lobbyists and the Obama administration would stay in place after Obama leaves the White House, unless Congress repeals them or the next president initiates another rule-making procedure to amend the regulation.  “What this means is that these broader restrictions will go beyond the Obama administration. They will exist even after he leaves office,” Kenneth Gross, a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, told The Hill.

Thanks to the IEC member who provided this tip.

Reminder: Support for OGC Conference

The OGE Conference website (set up with vendor CrowdCompass) is a great innovation. IECJournal.org is available to assist OGE Conference speakers in multiple additional ways:

• Would you like to keep the conversation going after the conference? We can help. We can post a conversation starter entry here and enable comments. It's an easy way to keep the conversation going, at no cost to you.
• Does your slide show have animations or speaker notes that won't be visible through the static PDF reproductions available through the OGE site?
• Would you prefer to give your audiences better options for reprinting your handouts (like easy multiple slides per page) rather than one slide per page?
• Did you complete your handouts for the 2011 OGE conference too late for distribution through the OGE website?

We are glad to help in any of these ways. Contact us by e-mail or catch up with one of our reporters at the conference (e-mail address & list of reporters in sidebar at left).

OGE Website Upgrade

Here are some preliminary impressions of the recent Office of Government Ethics website improvements. The improved appearance & shorter URL (oge.gov vs. usoge.gov; latter will “redirect” for a time) are superficial but very welcome.   

The more substantive improvements include: 

1.     A complete rethinking of the site structure, leading to improved navigation. This is probably the most important upgrade.

2.     The addition of a lot of substantive material (like 30+ DOJ OLC opinions on ethics issues & copies of many court decisions).

3.     The addition of RSS feeds for OGE Advisories and date announcements, giving users a better option than e-mail for tracking them.

You can use RSS feeds with more recent versions of MS Internet Explorer or MS Outlook, but many will prefer alternatives like Google Reader. If you have been wondering whether to adopt RSS, this could be the tipping point. It is a powerful tool. 

Like a new house, the new website will need a few tweaks here and there. One item for the punchlist: When clicking on links on the page with information about previous OGE conferences, attempting to access archived information results in an error message. 

Bottom Line: A giant upgrade over previous OGE Web efforts.

 

OGE Announces Plan to Upgrade Website

From the OGE mailing list:

New OGE Website Coming Soon!

In late August 2011, the U.S. Office of Government Ethics will unveil a new and improved website, at www.oge.gov. The new site is designed to provide a more friendly user experience for all user groups, including ethics practitioners, executive branch employees, and members of the general public. The site will offer more intuitive navigation, and robust research tools will allow content to be searched by topic, date, and legal citation. You can preview the site by clicking here.

Note: As a result of the redesign, links to the current site (www.usoge.gov) will no longer work once the new site goes live.

Washington Post article on OGE's 2011 Conference

Entitled, "Sun, Spa, Golf & Ethics" the article raises public perception concerns about the location of the OGE conference.  See http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ethics-on-the-links-in-orlando/2011/07/21/gIQAhk0aSI_print.html 

OGE updates regs for gift reporting

The Office of Government Ethics issued its final rule (technical amendment) increasing the financial disclosure reporting threshold for gifts from $335 to $350, to correspond with the Foreign Gifts & Decorations Act.  See 5 CFR 2634.304 and 2634.907(g).  The rule is effective July 1, 2011, and retroactive to January 1, 2011.  The rule also increases the threshold for exclusion for individual items from $135 to $140.  The amendment also increases the gift exception ceiling for non-sponsor gifts of free attendance at widely attended gatherings.  See 5 CFR 2635.204(g).

See Fed. Reg. notice at http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-07-01/pdf/2011-16642.pdf.

OGE Travel Expenses Questioned

A website named Junketsleuth, which bills its purpose as "exposing government travel excesses" has an article criticizing travel expenses incurred by the Office of Government Ethics in support of U.S. efforts in promoting international ethics and anti-corruption programs.

The OGE response is available.

OGE Resources for Dealing With Contractors in the Workplace

A subscription to the OGE mailing list (address in right column) is a must for all federal ethics officials. Last week's post on resources for dealing with contractors in the workplace is a good example. The resources include:

For employees -

• Working with Contractors: What You Need to Know (Web-based training module)
• Working with Government Contractors: What You Need to Know as a Federal Employee Who Works with Government Contractors (Booklet)

For ethics officials/trainers -

• Ethics and Working With Contractors, DAEOgram (06-023a) (2006).  DAEOgram in Q&A format.

OGE Seeks Program Excellence & Innovation Nominees

May 27 is the deadline for nominations for the OGE Program Excellence and Innovation Awards.

 

OGE Seeks Nominations for Program Excellence/Innovation Awards

OGE's solicitation of excellence and innovation nominations is available. The deadline for nominations is May 27. The awards will be presented at the OGE conference in September.
 

OGE Conference: Call for Topics

OGE is seeking topic suggestions for the 18th National Government Ethics Conference. The conference will be held September 13 - 15, 2011 at the Orlando World Center Marriott in Orlando, Florida. The deadline for topic suggestions is March 17.

OGE Opinions on CyberFEDS

The CyberFEDS legal research service, popular among lawyers working on personnel and EEO matters, includes Office of Government Ethics opinions in their database.  After limited testing, the search features appear to be highly flexible. A screen capture showing the OGE option is available:

View this photo

OGE Seeks Honors Attorney (GS-9)

The United States Office of Government Ethics is establishing an Honors Attorney position. This position, open to recent law school graduates from the classes of 2009 and 2010, is a three year term limited term appointment with promotion potential to GS-12.  To see full details visit: http://www.usoge.gov/careers.aspx.

SF 450 Review Checklist

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) was gracious enough to provide their formatted user-friendly, one-page checklist to help with OGE Form 450 reviews.  It is based on their interpretation of materials and notes from an OGE course.

Download 450 Review ChecklistPHMSA

We very much appreciate PHMSA's generous spirt, and we strongly encourage other IEC members to share their similar work products.  We can all operate more efficiently if we are not constantly reinventing the wheel. We have been receiving many more user contributions this month. Please help continue this desirable trend!

Jane Ley Article on Standards of Conduct History

Check out an article by Jane Ley (OGE’s Deputy Director for the Office of International Assistance & Governance Initiatives) chronicling the history of the executive branch’s ethics program.  The article, which appears in India’s Performance Matters newsletter, discusses the evolution of the Standards of Conduct, originally based on 6 principles issued by President Johnson in the 1960’s, to their present-day form.  It reveals the genesis of OGE’s role in reviewing Presidential nominees and outlines the development of OGE’s training, counseling, and oversight activities.  If you don’t know your ethics history, you should check it out.

Since that issue of Performance Matters magazine is a slow 40 MB download, we have taken the liberty of providing Ms. Ley's article in a stand-alone 3.5 MB file:

Download Ley Article on OGE History

Thanks to the IEC member who provided this wonderful tip!

EDITED Jan. 20 to correct typo.

 

OGE Ethics Specialist vacancy (GS 09)

The United States Office of Government Ethics (OGE) is seeking a GS-09 Government Ethics Specialist to join a team of dedicated professionals in OGE’s Office of Agency Programs.  The ideal candidate will have superb organizational, analytical, and communication skills and a strong desire to make a positive and practical impact in the Federal Government.   The Job Opportunity Announcement (11-OGE-005P) closes on Wednesday, January 12, 2011. 

 

Please click on the link below for more information and to apply for the position:  http://jobview.usajobs.gov/GetJob.aspx?JobID=95066815&JobTitle=Government+Ethics+Specialist&q=11-OGE-005P&sort=rv%2c-dtex&rad_units=miles&brd=3876&pp=25&qt=default&vw=b&re=134&FedEmp=N&FedPub=Y&caller=advanced.aspx&AVSDM=2010-12-22+10%3a47%3a00

 

Questions about the position should be directed to Dale Christopher, Associate Director, Program Services Division, at 202-482-9224.

OGE Ethics Specialist vacancy (GS 12)

The United States Office of Government Ethics (OGE) is seeking a GS-12 Government Ethics Specialist to join a team of dedicated professionals in OGE’s Office of Agency Programs.  The ideal candidate will have superb organizational, analytical, and communication skills and a strong desire to make a positive and practical impact in the Federal Government.

 

The Job Opportunity Announcement (11-OGE-004) closes on Thursday, December 23, 2010. 

 

Please click on the link below for more information and to apply for the position: http://jobview.usajobs.gov/GetJob.aspx?JobID=94591569&JobTitle=Government+Ethics+Specialist&q=11-OGE-004&where=&brd=3876&vw=b&FedEmp=Y&FedPub=Y&x=0&y=0&AVSDM=2010-12-09+00%3a03%3a00

 

Questions about the position should be directed to Dale Christopher, Associate Director, Program Services Division, at 202-482-9224 or Trish Zemple, Associate Director, Program Review Division, at 202-482-9286.

OGE 2009 Prosecution Survey

The Office of Government Ethics issued DAEOgram DO-10-017 on November 9, 2010 announcing the publication of the 2009 Conflict of Interest Prosecution Survey.   The survey contains summaries of cases involving conflict of interest violations.  The Department of Justice prosecuted the cases. See http://www.usoge.gov/ethics_guidance/daeograms/dgr_files/2010/do10017.pdf

Tracing Broken Links

We received a request via e-mail concerning one of our old postings:

Is the following training still available? OnlineTraining: Working with Contractors: What You Need to Know

When I click on the link it says page is not found. Any information you can provide is greatly appreciated.

Reproducing the answer may help others understand how they can help themselves when they have similar questions:

Like many organizations, OGE has been known to rearrange its website, breaking addresses. You could try contacting OGE and asking them about it. It might not be easy to find the responsible person at OGE. Therefore, it is probably more efficient to first try to track down the new address yourself. Self-help is good in this situation.

This is one of the reasons we include the link to a customized OGE Google search engine at iecjournal.org. It searches only the OGE site. In this case, a search on the phrase "Working With Contractors: What You Need to Know" leads to:

http://www.usoge.gov/training/training_modules.aspx

One of the links there has training about working with contractors.

If the site you are searching does not have a customized search engine, you can get a similar result by including the word "site:" before the name of the website to be searched. For example, to search the U.S. Treasury web site for information about ethics, use the search term "ethics site:treasury.gov". Look under the "Advanced Searches" tab at Google for more information about this and other search techniques.

OGE website to be reorganized, increase transparency

NextGov reports that OGE plans to demystify its website by reorganizing and renovating it to make audits and other guidance easier for employees -- and transparency watchdogs -- to find.  See full article at http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20100830_3089.php?oref=topnews

POGO Encourages Transparency for OGE Ethics Reviews

A coalition of "good government" groups, including The Project for Government Oversight, is encouraging agencies to disclose the results of OGE Ethics program reviews as part of a package of minimal transparency initiatives they call the "Open Floor."

Latest Version of Ethics Regs Available

The 2010 version of OGE's Standards of Conduct regulations are available at the GPO website. Thanks to Mark Stone for the reminder.

OGE Guide on Conferences (May 2010)

The Office of Government Ethics (OGE) recently compiled the first edition of a reference guide on conferences.  The guide includes information on not only Government ethics implications, but also fiscal, procurement, and other legal issues that often arise when Federal personnel are involved in conferences.  OGE collaborated with several other entities in creating this guide, they include but are not limited to GAO, GSA, DoD, EPA, and HHS.

Please note this is ONLY meant as a reference guide to help you begin to understand the legal aspects of conferences.  It should not be referenced as an authoritative document, but rather users should cite the the primary sources of the information cited in the guide.

See: Download Guide--Conferences 1 0 (May 2010)

Remember this is a working document.  If you have comments, or suggestions, or wish to add your agency's perspective, please do so at www.contactoge.gov. 

2010 OGE Ethics Program Award Recipients

The U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE) has announced the 2010 Ethics Program Award recipients:

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Department of Commerce
Department of Health and Human Services 

Office of the Secretary
Office of the General Counsel – Ethics Division
Health Resources and Services Administration

Department of the Interior

Departmental Ethics Office

Department of Justice
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
Environmental Protection Agency
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
Federal Trade Commission
Merit System Protection Board
National Aeronautics and Space Administration

George C. Marshall Space Flight Center
Langley Research Center
Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center

Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board
Peace Corps
Tennessee Valley Authority

OGE Participates in Anti-Corruption Mutual Evaluation Mechanisms

The U.S. Office of Government Ethics participated in two regional anti-corruption mutual evaluation mechanisms March 22-26, 2010.  The Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (known as GRECO for its French acronym) and the Follow-up Mechanism on the Inter-American Convention (known as MESICIC for its Spanish acronym) evaluate member country adherence to a number of similar anti-corruption standards.  Topics covered by current and past review have included codes of conduct, financial disclosure as an anti-corruption tool, merit hiring systems, bribery and the tax treatment of bribes. 

These mutual evaluation mechanisms allow countries to review how well their peers are complying with their respective anti-corruption obligations.  The evaluation processes serve to identify deficiencies in national anti-corruption laws and policies and prompt necessary legislative, institutional and practical reforms. These mechanisms also allow countries to share model practices in the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of corruption.

Both mechanisms operate in a series of subject-specific rounds, during which meetings are held to discuss and adopt country reports as they are completed.  MESICIC and GRECO are both in their third rounds of review.  The U.S. will be reviewed by the MESICIC and GRECO in 2011 and 2012. 

You can learn more and see U.S. reports on the following sites:

GRECO
MESICIC 

Agency Model Practices

The May upgrades to OGE's list of Agency Model Practices are welcome. Lists like this have multiple benefits, so let's hope this valuable section can be kept updated on a regular basis.

 

US OGE Mailing List Archives

Do you ever wish you could locate old e-mails from OGE's mailing list? There is an easily searchable online archive, including the September 16, 2002 welcome message from then-Director Amy Comstock up to the latest OGE missive.

It's available at:

http://listserv.access.gpo.gov/archives/oge-ethicsinfo-l.html

 

There's an easy procedure to get a password.

OGE Calendar: December

Excerpt from the 2008 OGE Calendar:

December--Remember, covered employees are required to receive annual ethics training before the end of the calendar year.

December 31--Today marks the end of the Public Financial Disclosure reporting period, except for the reporting period of Part II of Schedule C and Part I of Schedule D, which continue up to the date of filing. (5 CFR § 2634.308(a))

December 31--Today marks the end of the Confidential Financial Disclosure reporting period. (5 CFR § 2634.908(a))

Cusick Article

The most recent issue of The Journal of Public Inquiry, the professional publication for Inspectors General, has an article by OGE Director Ric Cusick entitled "Outsourcing Public Integrity." The issue containing the article is available in PDF format. It's a 12 Mb download. The Cusick article begins on page 63.

OGE Calendar: November

Excerpt from the 2008 OGE Calendar:

November 1 Reminder: Only 61 days remain in the Public Financial Disclosure calendar year. Remember that employees need to serve in a position for 61 days or more to file. (5 CFR § 2634.204)

November 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))

November 30 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))

November 30 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, 2008 - September 30, 2008. (31 U.S.C. 1353)

OGE Calendar: October

Reminder: The October IEC meeting will be held on Wednesday, October 8, rather than the usual first Thursday.

Excerpt from the 2008 OGE Calendar:

October 31 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 today.

Successful OGE Conference

Last week's Office of Government Ethics conference was another success.  Based on attendee comments, the presenters were generally well received.  Here are a few of the other well-implemented features that come to mind:

• The Exhibit Room was a good showcase of prize-winning educational and related products, including a slickly produced looping videotape.
• The Internet Cafe facilitated access with home offices.
• The full-color daily bulletins were a useful way of communicating with attendees.
• The half-hour sessions for demos, "ask the expert" time, etc. were a worthwhile innovation.
• The use of USB thumb drives to store handouts was a hit again. Handouts that were too late to make their way onto the thumb drives will be available from OGE by e-mail (Teresa Weakley, tlweake -- AT -- OGE -- DOT -- gov), and possibly their web site.
• And last but not least, the Rosen Centre Hotel met with general approval.

All in all, the conference was another feather in OGE's cap.

P.S. Apologies for the duplicate posts Friday about Congressional hearings. The Wi-Fi connection from Orlando airport was so slow I didn't realize first attempt had already been posted. I removed one from the web site, but you may get two copies via e-mail.

Update: Sept. 23, Corrected Teresa Weakley's e-mail address. As a reminder, we try to disguise e-mail addresses we post because web site postings are the number one source of spammer targets.

2008 Ethics Program Awards

OGE has announced its 2008 Ethics Program Awards.

Still More Great Search Tips

Thanks to IEC member Ethan A. Carrier for passing along the following excellent tips for searching the OGE web site:

You can also search DAEOgrams like so:

site:usoge.gov/ethics_guidance/daeograms

or Advisory Opinions like so:

site:usoge.gov/ethics_guidance/opinons

You may have noticed that you get three copies of each DAEOgram or AO because they exist as three types of files (txt, html, and pdf). If you want to avoid getting your results in triplicate, then you can limit what type of files are returned as results by adding:

filetype:txt or filetype:html or filetype:pdf

So, putting it all together, if I wanted to search the OGE Advisory Opinions for information on widely attended gatherings, I might do it like this:

"widely attended gatherings" site:usoge.gov/advisory_opinions filetype:pdf

You'll see that the results include only OGE Advisory Opinions, and only in the PDF filetype. This really is just scratching the surface of Google's search features, but I hope it is helpful!

Web Site Searching Alternatives

While welcome and very effective overall, the recent upgrade of the OGE web site has a few downsides, including changing the links to many pages. Many older links no longer work. A workaround I sometimes use when searching the archives here at IEC Journal may also save time when searching the OGE site:

For example, for our September 1 post I needed to obtain the new address for the USOGE 2008 Schedule of Important Ethics Dates. When I entered the search term "Calendar" into the OGE web site's search engine, after some delay I eventually received the response "Your Search returned 367 Records." Making matters worse, the search engine displays only five "hits" at a time.

Scrolling through 73 screens of search results in search of the one page I needed was not an appealing prospect, so I went to Google and entered the following search request:

site:www.usoge.gov calendar

Bingo! The calendar I was looking for was at the top of the list of search results.

Adding "site:" to the front of the OGE web site address tells Google to restrict its search to only that site. You can test it yourself. The secret? Unlike old-style search engines, Google and its closest competitors use sophisticated techniques to rank search results by relevance. The page you are looking for is more likely to be closer to the top of the results list. 

This using-an-alternate-search-engine trick won't always work, but it's a big time saver when it does. I used to use it frequently at the Department of Justice web site before they upgraded their dedicated search engine. I use it at IEC Journal on the frequent occasions when this site's dedicated search engine isn't giving me the results I want.

I use Google only because I'm more familiar with it. However, you would probably get comparable results using the top Google competitors that also use sophisticated relevancy rankings. Check their documentation to see how they restrict searches to a particular site.

OGE Calendar: September

Excerpts from the 2008 OGE Calendar:

September 15 DUE TO OGE TODAY: 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 first 45-day extensions are due today.

Reminder: The late filing fee now applies to annual Public Financial Disclosure filers who were granted second 45-day filing extensions but have not submitted their reports to agency ethics officials. Remember, checks should be made payable to the U.S. Treasury. (5 CFR § 2634.704)

September 16 Reminder: 2008 New Ethics Official Conference in Orlando, FL.

September 17-19 16th National Government Ethics Conference in Orlando, FL.

September 30 Reminder: The April 1 – September 30 period for reporting payments of travel accepted from non-federal sources ends today. Agencies should begin to prepare their 1353 travel report. (31 U.S.C. 1353)

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.

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.

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))

Reminder: Public Financial Disclosure Reports Due Friday

Unless you have received an extension, Friday, August 1 is the deadline to forward 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. The 2008 OGE Calendar lists this and other deadlines.

OGE DAEOgram on PAS Pooled Investments

DAEOgram DO-08-022 dated

July 22, 2008

explains what actions a nominee for a full-time Senate-confirmed position (PAS nominee) must take with regard to pooled investment funds in order for the Director of OGE to certify the individual’s financial disclosure report. 

You may access this DAEOgram at: http://www.usoge.gov/pages/daeograms/dgr_files/2008/do08022.pdf