The Defense Department’s standards of conduct office has put out guidance to employees reminding them that they generally cannot moonlight for contractors in the government workplace, saying “it is almost impossible for a government employee to work as contractor employee in the government workplace, either as a second job or while on [military] terminal leave.”
“Government personnel are prohibited by 18 USC 205 and 18 USC 203 from representing their second employer to the government. This makes problematic the increasingly common practice of contractor personnel physically working in government offices. The criminal statutes preclude a government employee from interacting or appearing in the federal workplace as a contractor employee.”
“Moonlighting with a government contractor is okay if they can work behind the scenes and outside of the federal workplace,” it adds. For example, it says, working as a Government employee and moonlighting as a contractor for the same organization may be permissible as long as the government employee is not interacting with Government personnel while acting in his contractor employee status. However, it said that “is almost impossible to do if physically located in the federal workplace.”
The guidance added that “government personnel (including lawyers) are unaware of the prohibitions of 18 USC 205 and 203 that prohibit government personnel from acting as an agent for someone else before the government. An employee acting within the scope of his duties is an agent for his employer.”
It added that Office of Government Ethics policy “shot down” the argument that merely performing a contract is not representation.