The Office of Government Ethics has issued guidance on how rules changes it finalized recently affect agency obligations to inform prospective employees and to train existing employees on conflict of interest, financial disclosure and other ethics policies.
Legal Advisory 16-09 notes that the rules “augmented the requirements for agency ethics education programs, in order to strengthen the effectiveness of ethics training . . . Some sections of the regulation establish entirely new requirements, and agencies will need to establish new systems to implement them. Other sections of the regulation improve upon existing requirements, and agencies will need to adapt their systems accordingly.”
One portion, for example, states that agencies must issue notices to prospective employees in the written offers of employment regarding the agencies’ ethics programs and applicable ethics requirements. “Having received this notice, each prospective new hire will be able to make a conscious choice to either become a contributing part of an agency’s strong ethical culture or decline the job offer. Generally, this notice can be inserted into the existing offer letters that human resources officials issue to new hires. However, regardless of which office is assigned by the agency to fulfill this new requirement, the notice language must be approved by the designated agency ethics official,” it says.
Similarly, agencies now must issue notices regarding applicable ethics requirements to employees who are newly promoted to supervisory positions, emphasizing that “in their new roles as supervisors, these employees will have heightened personal responsibility for advancing government ethics.” Some agencies already provide such notices, it adds.
Other provisions: require that most new hires complete interactive ethics training in addition to receiving written ethics materials; require interactive training annually for those who must file confidential financial disclosures; require in-person training annually for those filing public financial disclosures; and require certain new agency leaders to receive additional ethics briefings around the time of appointment on issues including recusal obligations.