The latest in a series of summaries of key ethical requirements for federal employees from the Office of Government Ethics focuses on the impartiality rule, which it said goes beyond conflict of interest prohibitions by focusing on appearance issues even when there is no financial conflict of interest. It said:
“Briefly stated, the impartiality rule requires an employee to consider appearance concerns before participating in a particular matter if someone close to the employee is involved as a party to that matter. This requirement to refrain from participating (or “recuse”) is designed to avoid the appearance of favoritism in government decision-making.
“The rule is not implicated by everyone the employee knows, for example, mere friends and neighbors. Instead, the rule focuses on professional and family relationships. Among others, the rule arises based on the employee’s relationship with any member of the employee’s household, an outside employer, a spouse’s employer, any relative with whom the employee has a close personal relationship, or an outside organization in which the employee is an “active” member. The rule is also triggered by the employee’s relationship with individuals, clients, and organizations the employee has served professionally as an employee, attorney, contractor, etc., in the past year.
“The duty to recuse comes up if one of these individuals and organizations is involved and if a reasonable person with knowledge of the relevant facts would be concerned about the employee’s impartiality. Because the rule is somewhat technical, employees should attend required ethics training to ensure that they understand how to make impartial decisions when performing their government jobs. Employees should also contact their agency ethics officials for assistance in applying the rule in specific cases.”
