The Office of Government Ethics has put out a reminder that it cooperates with agency inspectors general in various ways, including by interpreting conflict of interest and ethics laws that may come into play during investigations into conduct by agency officials.
A blog posting noted that the separate laws creating OGE and agency IGs were passed in the same year, 1978, and in fact emerged from the same committee during the same month, designed to boost the public’s confidence in the government’s integrity following the Watergate scandal.
Apart from interpreting laws under its expertise, OGE provides training for IG investigators on ethics-related matters and working with ethics officials; engages with IGs during its reviews of agency ethics programs and emphasizes the role IGs play in ensuring the integrity of agency operations; and reviews whether agencies have effective processes for notifying the OGE of criminal referrals to the Justice Department implicating government ethics, it said.
The OGE director further serves on the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency and on that body’s integrity committee.