The Office of Government Ethics has said that this year it is not going to update its holiday season poem about gift-giving policies in federal offices, saying that no staffer has stepped forward to tackle the task of “penning heroic couplets in iambic pentameter to describe ethics restrictions.”
The poem, originally written in 1994 and revised several times since, has proven unexpectedly popular over the years, triggering kudos from a poetry teacher and even parody poems from Capitol Hill, director Walter Schaub noted in a blog post.
“What I will give you instead is some commonsense advice: If you are a federal employee, you should consult your agency’s ethics officials before accepting any gift that is (1) offered by a subordinate or any federal employee who earns less than you do; (2) offered because of your federal position; or (3) offered by a prohibited source. (A prohibited source includes any person or organization seeking official action by your agency, doing business or seeking to do business with your agency, conducting activities regulated by your agency, or substantially affected by your duties.),” the post says.
“If you are offered an impermissible gift, you should decline it or promptly return it to the giver. Penalties for violating the gift rules can be severe, and it’s better to err on the side of caution if you are not sure whether the rules permit you to accept a gift. Turning down a gift might sound like an awkward thing to do, but you can explain that strict ethics rules limit what federal employees can accept,” it says.
The poem remains on OGE site, along with recently proposed revisions to gift policies, including new factors to consider when weighing whether accepting even otherwise permissible gifts would raise questions about integrity.
