The proposed OGE rules also loosen certain policies on training to allow “greater flexibility for agency ethics officials – who are in the best position to know their agencies’ programs and operations – to tailor the content of the training to meet the needs of their employees,” as the notice puts it.
For example, for employees who are required to receive annual training, current rules require the agency’s training to cover each of the principles of ethical conduct, each of the standards of ethical conduct, and each of the conflict of interest statutes, in addition to any agency supplemental standards of conduct. The proposed rule instead provides the agency ethics office with discretion to determine how much of the training to devote to each of those areas.
The rules also would end the requirement for agencies to develop formal training plans, “which largely consist of inordinately detailed estimates of various categories of employees required to complete annual training in a particular year. In the experience of the Office of Government Ethics, these plans appear to contribute little to the success of agency training programs while requiring a disproportionately large effort from agency ethics officials. The requirement to engage in reasonable planning efforts still applies, but the Office of Government Ethics will no longer prescribe the form these efforts must take.”
The rules meanwhile would create new requirements to inform newly appointed supervisors of their role in the agency ethics program, and to inform prospective employees, in their written employment offers, of the ethical obligations associated with the position being offered.
“By taking advantage of existing personnel systems for issuing written offers of employment and for training new supervisors, agencies can, with little additional effort, inform employees of their newly acquired ethical responsibilities,” it says. The agency HR office could be delegated this responsibility.