GIFTS
True or False: Modest food items and refreshments, such as soft drinks, coffee, and donuts that are not offered as part of a meal are still considered as gifts.
What is false? 5 CFR 2635.203 does not consider modest food items and non-alcoholic beverages that are not served as part of a meal as gifts.
Govt employee, Bob, worked personally and substantially on the Camp Swampy project and is now retiring. How long must Bob wait to work for the Camp Swampy Contractor and become the Camp Swampy POC to interact with his old office?
Forever.
But, he may do work behind the scenes.
Employees may not engage in (_______ ________) while on duty or in the federal workplace or while wearing a uniform or official insignia.
What is political activity?
You are very proud of your connection with the Coalition of American Environmental Scientists.
Can you send emails to your coworkers encouraging them to join or donate?
No. Federal employees may not encourage, pressure, or coerce other personnel, especially subordinates, to join, support, or otherwise participate in outside organizations.
You are helping in the selection of a contractor for a levee enlargement project. Your spouse works for the contractor in an area completely unrelated to the levee contract. He participates in the company's stock purchase program and receives cash bonuses related to the company's profitability. Can you participate in the contractor selection?
Absolutely not. The likelihood of profit does not matter in this particular instance, and your spouse’s interests can be imputed to you. Per 18 U.S.C. § 208 and 5 C.F.R. § 2635.402, “an employee is prohibited by criminal statute . . . 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 under this statute has a financial interest, if the particular matter will have a direct and predictable effect on that interest.” The spouse has an interest in any contract contributing to the company's profitability.
Your supervisor invites you and your spouse to dinner. You are aware of restrictions on gifts to supervisors, but you want to bring something to the dinner. Would a $20 bottle of wine be an appropriate host/hostess gift?
What is yes? Although it is beyond the $10 limitation on gifts to supervisors, it is a gift that is customarily given on such occasion and not excessive.
Govt employee Nancy is retiring and Zebra Company approaches her about hiring her for Post-Government Employment. “Oh, nah,” Nancy says, “not right now, thanks, but I have your number, I can contact you if I turn out to be interested.”
Has Nancy started employment discussions?
If so, what must she do?
Nancy is negotiating for employment, and must recuse herself from working on matters involving Zebra.
All of your friends know how excited you are about the upcoming presidential election. One of your personal friends, who is not employed by USACE, gives you an autographed photo of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. May you display the autographed photo in your office?
No. All DoD employees are prohibited from displaying political/campaign literature, materials, and information in their DoD workspace (including non-official pictures of a President running for reelection).
You went to the grocery store to purchase supplies for a party at your home. You were running short on time, but you suddenly realized that you had mistakenly taken your Government credit card rather than your personal card. But you also reminded yourself that many of the party invitees were fellow federal employees. May you use your government credit card for the purchase?
Can you use the Government card to purchase the party supplies as long as you pay off the balance as soon as you get home?
No. You may never use your government card for personal use, even if it doesn’t cost the government anything.
You accept a promotion to a new position within USACE, but you also serve as a decision-maker on the board of an outside organization that will be specifically affected by 75% of the transactions in which you will participate as part of your new USACE duties.
Though numerous factors could be at play here, what will likely be your BEST course of action among the options below?
(a) Resign from the board of the outside organization.
(b) Notify your USACE supervisor but remain on the board.
(c) Recuse yourself from all actions affecting the outside organization.
(d) Take no action but await further instructions.
(a) Resign from the board of the outside organization. Per 5 C.F.R. 2635.802, “An employee shall not engage in . . . outside activity that conflicts with his official duties if . . . it would require the employee's disqualification from matters so central or critical to the performance of his official duties that the employee's ability to perform the duties of his position would be materially impaired.”
A contractor on the project you’re working on can’t make it to the George Strait concert this weekend, so he offered you his tickets (face value for two tickets $36).
What can you do?
A.Take the tickets (you didn’t ask for them so it’s OK)
B.Take the tickets but pay him $16 (so it is a gift less than $20)
C.Take only one ticket
D.Pay face value for the tickets
E.Refuse to accept the tickets
C, D, E — Refuse the tickets, take one ticket, or pay full price for both tickets.
Summer intern, Barbara, has been working closely with Govt employee, Dan, so she asks him for an official recommendation for a federal Govt job, may he give her one?
Yes.
Notwithstanding the general prohibition on endorsing Non-Federal entities, Federal employees may provide character references for people with whom they have dealt in Federal employment.
You are a proud employee of USACE and own a vast wardrobe of USACE polo shirts. A friend invites you to attend a local political debate. You decide to attend at the last minute and show up to the event wearing your USACE polo shirt. May you attend the event? What if you place a peel & stick, Sharpied nametag over the logo?
No. You may not engage in political activity while wearing a uniform or official insignia identifying your office, agency, or position. But you may change your shirt or cover the logo and attend the event in your personal capacity.
One stormy day, Richard, a supervisor at a Government agency, forgot to bring his umbrella to work with him, but he had an urgent meeting to attend and could not go back for it. He asks one of his staff, already on duty, to go by his house to pick it up for him. Is this permissible?
No. Employees may not direct or request subordinates to use official time to perform any activities other than official activities.
Because of your long years of service with USACE, you have gained expert knowledge on USACE policies. Drawing upon your expertise, you author a book by spending time writing it after you leave work each evening. Because you did this on your own time, what can you now do with your book?
(a) Sell it to a publisher.
(b) Sell it to a nonprofit organization.
(c) Donate it to a publisher with the stipulation that profits go to the charity of your choice.
(d) Self-publish and sell an online version.
(e) All of the above.
(f) None of the above.
(f) None of the above. Per 5 CFR § 2635.807, a Government employee normally “shall not receive compensation from any source other than the Government for . . . writing that relates to the employee's official duties.” Even with option (c), you are the one directing (and thereby controlling) where the profits go.
A Contractor who you met at a training course a few years back started working as a Contractor for the division. You had hung out with the Contractor for a few evenings during the training course and accepted his friend request on Facebook. The Contractor gives you a Christmas gift at an annual Christmas party that you can tell is worth more than $20. What do you do?
A.Keep it. He gave it to you as a friend, not a contractor.
B.Give him a gift of the same value using your own private funds.
C.Pay him for the gift.
D.Return the gift when you see him at the next Christmas party.
E.Donate the gift to a charity.
C. Payment for the gift is acceptable. It would also be acceptable to return the gift, but it must be done promptly, not the following year. The relationship to the contractor probably does not fall under the personal relationship exception. The donation to charity is not proper disposal because you control where it goes.
Which of the following is permissible:
A. Playing poker for quarters during your lunch break
B. Fantasy football league, drafted and managed at work, with a $10 buy-in. The winner uses the money to buy everyone pizza.
C. Fantasy football league with buddies from work. $100 buy-in. Managed off-duty, off-premises, and without government equipment.
A. Playing poker for quarters during your lunch break
Nope.
B. Fantasy football league, drafted and managed at work, with a $10 buy-in. The winner uses the money to buy everyone pizza. No! DoD general counsel has explicitly forbid this!
C. Fantasy football league with buddies from work. $100 buy-in. Managed off-duty, off-premises, and without government equipment. Sure! (But not at work, even with personal phones!)
You are a bumper sticker enthusiast and are excited about the upcoming presidential election. May you park your car in the USACE parking lot if:
a. You put seven bumper stickers on the car for the same candidate?
b. You only put one bumper sticker on your car for a candidate?
c. Either is acceptable.
d. Neither is acceptable.
B would be acceptable. You may place A bumper sticker on your car and park it in a government parking lot. Two partisan political bumper stickers (for example, one for candidate A in a Presidential race and one for candidate B in a congressional race) would not violate the Hatch Act. However, caution should be used to ensure that displaying stickers does not make the vehicle appear to be a campaign mobile.
A "local writer" pens an excellent historical novel about the 2019 flood fight. May you use your official title or refer to your official position in an endorsement of the novel on the dust jacket? What if you're actually the author and writing under a "pen name?"
No.
An employee shall not use or permit the use of his government position or title or any authority associated with his public office to endorse any product, service, or enterprise except in furtherance of statutory authority to promote products, services or enterprises; or as a result of documentation of compliance with agency requirements or standards or as the result of recognition for achievement given under an agency program of recognition for accomplishment in support of the agency's mission.
While working for USACE, you helped administer a dredging contract on the Mississippi River. Later, you left USACE and got a job with the contractor involved in the project.
After you start the new job, the contractor asks you to:
1) provide the names of the USACE points of contact on the contract you helped administer and
2) attend a meeting with those points of contact in relation to the contract.
With which, if any, of those two requests can you normally comply?
You can likely comply on the first request, but generally not the second. Per 18 USC § 207 and 5 CFR § 2641.201, you are likely not forbidden from providing the names of points of contact that are not otherwise confidential. But after you leave government service, you cannot communicate with or appear before the U.S. Government on behalf of anyone else involving specific projects you worked on.
Government Employee Bob receives the following gifts from assorted people/organizations, Which may he keep and why?
1. A $10 Mouse pad from Prohibited Source Gotcha, with its logo.
2. A pair of baseball tickets ($18 a piece, $36 total) from Prohibited Source You Bet.
3. A $8 brick from Prohibited Source Gotcha, with its logo.
4. A $50 restaurant gift certificate in a drawing open to the public.
5. A $9 headphone and $26 ringlight for giving speeches from Prohibited Source Gotcha.
1. Mousepad may be used for mouse, so not an item with little intrinsic value, but worth $10. May accept as <$20 gift exception. 5 CFR 2635.204(a)
2. Baseball tickets, as a pair, no, but may accept 1 ticket or no tickets. May accept as $20 gift exception. 5 CFR 2635.204(a). Think about paying market value for tickets, so not a gift.
3. Brick, item with little intrinsic value. May accept under gift exclusion. 5 CFR 2635.203(b)(2)
4. Restaurant gift certificate, open to the public. May accept as gift exclusion. 5 CFR 2635.203(b)(4)
5. Headphone ($9) and ring light ($26), worth $35. May not keep both. May not keep ringlight. May keep headphone and mouse pad, since total from Gotcha is $19 (<$20). 5 CFR 2635.204(a).
Must Consider Values Based Decision-making for Gift Exceptions (not whether he “can” accept it, but whether he “should” accept it)
Which of the following is not an ethical violation
A. Sending a quick email for your personal lawn care business while working.
B. Giving a five dollar McDonald’s gift card to your boss for his birthday.
C. Accepting a $15 dollar t-shirt and a ten dollar towel from a government contractor
D.Printing off some flyers about your lost cat on a government printer
E.Liking a political Facebook post while working
F. An NCAA tournament bracket pool, where all the losers have to donate $10 to a charity chosen by the winner.
A.Sending a quick email for your personal lawn care business while working.
Violation! Outside employment conflicting with official duties!
B.Giving a five dollar McDonald’s gift card to your boss for his birthday.
Not a violation! Traditional gift giving occasion! Less than ten bucks!
C.Accepting a $15 dollar t-shirt and a ten dollar towel from a Government contractor
Violation! Prohibited source, total of over twenty bucks!
D.Printing off some flyers about your lost cat on a government printer
Violation! Misuse of government resources!
E.Liking a political Facebook post while working. Violation! Political activity at work!
F.An NCAA tournament bracket pool, where all the losers have to donate $10 to a charity chosen by the winner. Violation! Gambling!
You are a less restricted employee teleworking from your home at 0900 on a Monday and receive a social media notification on your personal phone of a meme advocating against a presidential candidate. You like the post. Is this permissible?
No. You are not allowed to engage in political activity while on duty. Here, the employee is teleworking and on duty at 0900. The act of liking a tweet is political activity.
A friend of yours, who also works at USACE, is having work done on his property but thinks the contractor is charging him too much. Because of your expertise in reviewing contracts, and because the contractor also does work for USACE, your friend asks you to call the contractor for him. You do so, and in the course of the conversation, you remind the contractor that you review contracts for USACE and that USACE frowns upon contractors that misuse their position and charge more for work than they should. Was your reminder to the contractor appropriate, and if so, why?
No, it was inappropriate. Per 5 CFR 2635.702(a), “An employee shall not use or permit the use of his Government position or title or any authority associated with his public office in a manner that is intended to coerce or induce another person, including a subordinate, to provide any benefit, financial or otherwise, to himself or to friends, relatives, or persons with whom the employee is affiliated in a nongovernmental capacity.”
As a USACE employee, you are providing oversight of a contractor’s work on a bank stabilization project, but you are also thinking about leaving employment with USACE to work for that contractor. Under normal federal regulations, and disregarding any waivers or office-specific regulations, at what point are you most likely to be disqualified from your work on the bank stabilization project?
a) When you post your resume online for the general public.
b) When you submit an unsolicited resume to the contractor in question but have yet to hear a response.
c) When the contractor acknowledges receipt of your resume.
d) When the contractor indicates interest in your resume.
b) When you submit an unsolicited resume to the contractor in question. Submission of an unsolicited resume does not disqualify you from all USACE work, but in this particular case, you are involved in work that constitutes a specific action that has a “direct and predictable effect on the financial interests” of your specific prospective employer. See 5 C.F.R. § 2635.604.