DLA Ethics Hub: Your Guide to Ethical Conduct

Gifts Between Employees – General rules:

• An employee may not give a gift to a supervisor;
   
• An employee may not accept a gift from a lower graded employee;
   
• An employee may not ask another employee to contribute towards a gift for their supervisor or for the other employee’s supervisor.

Gifts Between Employees – Exceptions:

• The Occasional Basis Exception – Occasions on which gifts are traditionally given or exchanged – $10 rule.
   
• The Special Infrequent Occasion Exception – Gift appropriate to the occasion, e.g., marriage, birth of a child, retirement,
  • Total value of group gift is limited to $480, if group includes a subordinate;
  • If the same person contributes to more than one group gift, the gifts are aggregated for purposes of reaching $480;
  • All contributions must be strictly voluntary.

Rules: May not accept a gift given because of your official position or from a prohibited source – any person or organization seeking official action, doing or seeking to do business or substantially affected by the performance of your official duties.

Exclusions:

• Greeting cards and plaques;
• Modest refreshments served as other than part of a meal (coffee, donuts, etc., but not alcohol);
• Benefits/discounts available to the public, government employees, or all military;
• Gifts to the government;
• Anything paid for by the government under a contract.

Exceptions:

• Gifts of $20 or less per occasion, for an annual limit of $50;
• Gifts based upon a personal relationship;
• Speaking engagements;
• Widely attended gatherings;
• Social invitations from other-than-prohibited sources.
  
   

General Rules:                                                                                                                                                   

• File annually after Jan. 1 and before Feb. 15.
• Complete annual ethics training by Nov. 30.
• Don’t report federal income (salary, military retirement, Thrift Savings).
• DLA OGC Policy on Filing Confidential Financial Disclosures.
• File or review employee OGE 450 Confidential Disclosure Form.
• Guidance for supervisors - Deciding who should file an OGE 450.

Outside Employment

• Get approval before going to work for a prohibited source.
• Get a legal review before seeking outside/post government employment..                                                                                        

• Must file OGE 278 by May 15 annually (like your taxes, pertains to previous calendar year’s investments)
   
• Complete annual ethics training before Nov. 30
   
• Report sale or purchase of stock over $1000 within 30 days (Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act of 2012)
   
• Must report to the Office of General Counsel if negotiating for employment within 3 days (STOCK Act)
   
• File or review employees (SES/GO/FO) OGE 278
   
• Public may request from Agency Ethics Counselor to review and inspect Public Financial Disclosure Forms using OGE Form 201.

• Do not work on a matter if it involves a company where you have applied for a job.
   
• When seeking non-federal employment, employees MUST disqualify themselves from official participation in any particular matter that has a direct and predictable effect on the financial interests of entities with whom the employee is discussing future employment.
   
• Disqualification must be in writing and delivered to, at a minimum, your supervisor and to ethics counsel.
   
• All OGE Form 450 Filers must go through the legal office before leaving the agency.
   
  • Post Government Employment Questionnaire - DD Form 2945 - Must be filled out before you can receive a written post government employment opinion.
     
  • Employee Guide to Post Government Employment.
     
  • Senior Employee Guide to Post Government Employment.
     
  • Guide for DLA contracting personnel seeking Post Government Employment.

• Permanent (“Lifetime”) Ban:  (18 U.S.C. § 207) – Bars you from representing another before any federal agency or court regarding particular matters involving specific parties in which you participated personally and substantially at anytime during federal service. “Lifetime” means the life of the particular matter (e.g., contract).
   
• 2-Year Ban:  (18 U.S.C. § 207) – Bars all former employees from representing another before any federal agency or court regarding particular matters involving specific parties that were under their official responsibility during their last year of federal employment.
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• 1-Year Cooling Off:  (18 U.S.C. § 207) – Bars members of the Senior Executive Service and General and Flag Officers for one year after leaving a senior position from representing another before their former agency to seek official action.
  • Section 1045, NDAA FY 2018 – SES/GO/FO cannot represent back to all of DoD – Includes behind the scenes work for one (O7-O8 equivalent) or two (O9-O10 equivalent) years.  See DoD Instruction 1000.32.
  • Section 847, NDAA FY 2008 – Requires certain procurement personnel to use the DoD After Government Employment Advice Repository (AGEAR) for Post Government Employment Opinions. 
    • AGEAR Info paper.
    • File in AGEAR.
  • 41 USC § 2101 et. al – Procurement Integrity Act – One year ban for certain procurement officials and prohibitions on use of source selection information.

Do:

• Remain impartial – treat all the same.
   

• Always check with legal and procurement policy:

  • Is there litigation pending?

  • Is there an investigation pending?

  • Is there a solicitation pending with this contractor?
     

• Push engagement down to the lowest appropriate level.
   

• Listening is always good – be careful not to promise action.

Do not:

• Do not grant special access
• Do not endorse.
• Do not cross into the contracting officer’s area of responsibility.
• Do not disclose non-public information.

• An employee is prohibited from participating personally and substantially in an official capacity in any particular matter in which, to his knowledge, he or any person whose interests are imputed to him has a financial interest, if the particular matter will have a direct and predictable effect on that interest. 
  • Also includes financial interests of general partners of employee and an organization where employee serves as an officer;
  • Or a company that you are negotiating with for employment.
     
• This statute and regulation are why we file financial disclosure forms, i.e., OGE Form 450.

Non-federal conferences:

• Speaking – Ensure it is appropriate to support – Consistent with DoD mission. 
  • Can accept free attendance on day of speaking if doing so in an official capacity.
     
• Before providing logistical support (e.g., speaker or use of facilities), to a NFE, must first ask:
  • Is it appropriate to associate DLA and DoD with this entity?
  • Is it in DLA's interest to support?
  • Will it detract from DLA's ability to perform its mission if we provide this support?
  • Would we treat another entity the same that is similarly situated?
• Remember, we may never endorse a non-federal entity in our official capacity.

• Can accept gift of travel if private entity offers to pay – lodging, travel and per diem – but legal opinion and memo from supervisor needed to document accepting on behalf of agency in accordance with 31 U.S.C. 1353.  See DoD Gift of Travel Acceptance Procedures.
   
• Can speak at DLA expense with no reimbursement when clearly supporting the DLA mission.

DoD or other government conferences:

• Understand the conference approval process - DLAI 7600.01.

Do:

• Let the contractor supervise its employees.
• Respect the employer-employee relationship between a contractor and its employees.
• Ensure that the contractors in the workplace are clearly identified and clearly identify themselves as such to others. This will help prevent inadvertent mistakes.

Do not:

• Become so involved in contractor operations as to shift the risk of performance from the contractor back to the government.
• Misuse government resources by misusing contractor time or ordering work to be performed that is outside the scope of the contract.
• Give awards or public recognition for their performance.

• Generally prohibited in the workplace other than CFC Campaign.
   
• May conduct limited to “by your own, for your own.”
  • Must process request through legal and facilities.
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• May conduct ‘in kind’ collections – food, toys or clothes.
  • Must process request through legal and facilities.

• Prohibited in all Federal Facilities and during the duty day.
   
• Raffles considered gambling if consideration paid for an opportunity to win a prize.
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• Office Pools – Such as fantasy football permitted only if:
  • No use of government resources, including time;
  • And of course, no money is exchanged – no gambling in workplace.

• Use federal government equipment and property, including communications systems, only for official purposes or authorized purposes as approved by your supervisor.
  ​
• Subject to supervisor approval, you may use government resources for personal purposes IF the use:
  • Does not adversely affect the performance of official duties; 
  • Is of reasonable duration and frequency; 
  • Serves a legitimate public interest (such as keeping the employee at their desk); 
  • Does not reflect adversely on DoD; and 
  • Creates minimal or no significant additional cost to DoD.