The supervising ethics office for the Executive Branch, the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) is an independent agency that aims to prevent conflicts of interest on the part of U.S. government employees, and works to resolve those conflicts if they occur. It is also involved in the development of ethics programs for the government’s anti-corruption foreign policy initiatives. Despite its numerous publications and instructional videos, the agency has proven incapable of dealing with the massive problem of the revolving door, through which government officials pass between industries and the agencies that are supposed to regulate them. The current director of the Office of Government Ethics, Robert Cusick, was appointed to the position after contributing to the reelection campaign of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), who wrote a letter of recommendation on his behalf to President George W. Bush.

Established as part of the Office of Personnel Management by the Ethics in Government Act of 1978, the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) became a separate agency on October 1, 1989, as a result of the passage of the Office of Government Ethics Reauthorization Act of 1988.

Striving to ensure that there is no conflict of interest in actions taken by Executive Branch employees, or any appearance of conflicts of interest, the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) works closely with every Executive Branch agency. Each agency’s head has primary responsibility for the daily administration of ethics in his or her specific office, and also selects a Designated Agency Ethics Official (DAEO) through whom the OGE communicates on policies and regulatory changes, one-on-one and by issuing OGE Advisories (formerly DAEOgrams), memoranda providing guidance on how to interpret and comply with new or modified conflict of interest or standards of conduct regulations, or financial disclosure policies and procedures. In addition, each department and agency is assigned an OGE desk officer who is responsible for providing assistance in maintaining Standards of Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch.

Duties in the OGE are divided among various offices:

• The Office of the Director is responsible for making sure the OGE fulfills its presidential and congressional mandates.
• The Office of International Assistance and Governance Initiatives coordinates OGE’s support of U.S. efforts on behalf of international anti-corruption programs, including, at the request of foreign policy agencies and entities of the United States government, reviewing documents, hosting delegations, and conducting digital videoconferences.
• The Office of General Counsel and Legal Policy is the OGE liaison to Congress and the Office of Management and Budget. It also develops a uniform legal framework of government ethics for the executive branch, as well as program policies and regulations, and interprets laws, assists agencies in legal and policy implementations, recommends changes in conflicts of interest and ethics statutes, and responds to media requests for information.

Advisory Opinions

• The Office of Agency Programs (OAP) operates the Ethics news and information email list to provide timely information to ethics officials. It also hosts an annual Government Ethics Conference to update Executive Branch ethics officials about changes in regulations, statutes, and interpretations. In addition, it manages the Executive Branch paperwork in regards to the Public Financial Disclosure Reporting System, via which senior members in all three branches are required to file public reports of their finances. The Program Services Division (PSD) of OAP collects, tracks, and reviews these reports for employees in the Executive Branch to ensure they are complete and do not raise any unaddressed questions of potential conflicts of interest. The division also tracks each presidential appointee’s compliance with any ethics agreements the appointee made during the Senate confirmation process. OAP’s Program Review Division conducts arranged-in-advance on-site reviews of offices’ ethic programs, and its Education Division develops and provides a variety of video, instructor-led, and Web-based ethics materials and training courses, workshops, and seminars for Executive Branch employees.
• The Office of the Administration oversees personnel, payroll, fiscal and property management, travel, procurement, and publishing.

Whenever a transition to a new administration is going to occur, OGE has additional responsibilities, including advising new and outgoing employees of their ethics obligations and reviewing incoming administration nominees for conflicts of interest.

Potential Ethics Issues

- Certain post-employment business activities

- Conflicting financial interests

- Disobeying restrictions regarding book deals

- Engaging in away-from-the-job experiences that conflict with one’s official duties

- Accepting gifts from outside sources

- Failing to adhere to public finance disclosure regulations

- Lack of impartiality in performing official duties

- Misuse of position

- Prosecuting a claim against the United States, or acting as the agent or attorney of a private party before the government in connection with a particular matter in which the U.S. is a party or has a direct or substantial interest

Among the publications, forms, and documents that are available from the OGE office are:

- Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch (pdf)

- Working with Government Contractors (pdf)

- Ethics and Procurement Integrity: What You Need to Know as a Federal Employee Involved in the Procurement and Acquisition Process (pdf)

- Do It Right (pdf)

- A Brief Wrap on Ethics (pdf)

- Take the High Road (pdf)

- Gifts Between Employees (pdf)

- Gifts from Outside Sources

- Rules for the Road (pdf)

From the OGE Web Site

Advisories

Career Opportunities

Contact Information

Education

Enforcement

Ethics Documents

Ethics Topics

FAQs

Financial Conflicts of Interest

Financial Disclosure

Forms Library

Gifts and Payments

International Activities

Laws and Regulations

Legislative Affairs and Budget

Links to Related Sites

News Releases

Program Management

Reports

Use of Government Position

According to the OGE’s FY 2013 Explanatory Notes and Annual Performance Plan, the agency’s funds are distributed as follows:

Salaries                                                                                                            $8,304,000

Benefits                                                                                                           $2,184,000

Rental payments to GSA                                                                               $1,481,000

Other Services                                                                                                 $1,115,000

Supplies & Materials                                                                                         $123,000

Communications & Utilities                                                                              $112,000

Equipment                                                                                                           $87,000

Travel                                                                                                                   $48,000

Rental Payments to Others                                                                                 $15,000

Transportation (freight)                                                                                         $3,000

Printing and Reproduction                                                                                     $1,000

Total Budget                                                                                                  $31,473,000

End Employee Ban on Nonprofit Boards

For 15 years federal employees were prohibited from serving on the boards of nonprofit organizations. But in July 2011, the Office of Government Ethics proposed a rule change ending the ban. Under the new regulation, workers would be able to serve on nonprofit boards without having to obtain a waiver from their agency.

Advocacy groups supported the rule change, which would help agencies recruit top scientists who might otherwise be reluctant to join the government because of the prohibition. “The removal of this deterrent to federal service will make it easier for agencies to attract the best and the brightest scientists to their scientific staffs,” wrote 30 organizations in a letter supporting the regulation.

Ethics Office Moves To Let Federal Employees Serve On Nonprofit Boards (by Emily Yehle, Greenwire)

Office Spends Heavily on Foreign Travel

The Office of Government Ethics was singled out in 2011 by Junket Sleuth, a website devoted to federal government travel excesses, for spending 45% of its travel budget from 2006 to 2010 on trips overseas.

Expenditures on foreign travel totaled $281,314, out of $621,698 during the time period in question. Forty-three of the 50 most expensive trips taken by agency employees were to foreign countries. Staff visited France 20 times, China nine, Austria seven, and Japan five, in addition to other countries.

Employees of a Tiny Federal Agency That Monitors Government Ethics Spent Nearly As Much Money Traveling To Other Countries As They Did Traveling within the United States (JunketSleuth)

The Revolving Door Between Government Employment and Post-Government Employment

“The Revolving Door” refers to the tendency of administration officials to leave office and take industry jobs, cashing in with the corporations they once regulated. On the other side, industry executives take government positions and pursue a corporate-friendly approach to the oversight of the industries with which they have worked.

The Ethical Choice: Ethics for Special Government Employees (YouTube)

The Second Term: Revolving Door (pdf)

The Pentagon’s Revolving Door (by William Fisher, Huffington Post)

All the president’s PR men: Raw Story investigation reveals revolving door on Iraq PR (by Larisa Alexandrovna and Muriel Kane, Raw Story)

How Things Work: FTC Chair to Join Proctor & Gamble (Multinational Monitor)

Under Bush the Revolving Door Gains Speed (by Judy Sarasohn, Washington Post)

Bush Advisors Cashed in on Saudi Gravy Train (by Jonathan Wells, Jack Meyers and Maggie Maulvihill, Boston Herald)

The Revolving Door: US Government Workers & University Researchers Go Biotech…and Back Again (by Anne C. Mulkern, Denver Post)

When Advocates Become Regulators: President Bush has installed more than 100 top officials who were once lobbyists, attorneys or spokespeople for the industries they oversee (by Anne C. Mulkern, Denver Post)

Revolving Door (OpenSecrets)

US SEC urged to adopt more revolving door safeguards (by Sarah N. Lynch, Reuters)

What is the Revolving Door? (by Josh Clark, How Stuff Works)

Government: FCC Commissioner Baker exits via the revolving door (by John Healey, Los Angeles Times)

The Revolving Door: 22 People Who Went From Wall Street To Washington To Wall Street (Business Insider)

Grassley demands waivers and recusals on former lobbyists in the Obama administration (by Angie Drobnic Holan, PolitiFact.com)

Disclosure Forms on Web

The Office of Government Ethics (OGE) announced in March 2012 that personal financial disclosure forms of Senate-confirmed officials would soon be available online to the public. Until now, anyone seeking this information had to request it from the OGE by mail or fax. Once the online tool is up, officials’ assets, liabilities and transactions will be searchable by name, agency or position. The move by OGE came at a time when Congress was working on legislation that could expand the number of financial disclosure reports that are publicly accessible.

Office of Government Ethics Increases Transparency of Personal Financial Disclosure Records (by Dan Auble, OpenSecrets.org)

Easier Access To Disclosure Forms Planned (by Eric Yoder, Washington Post)