Annual Program Performance Report
Office of Government Ethics for FY 2004 

 The mission of the Office of Government Ethics: 

The Office of Government Ethics exercises leadership in the executive branch to prevent conflicts of interest on the part of Government employees, and to resolve those conflicts of interest that do occur.  In partnership with executive branch agencies and departments, we foster high ethical standards for employees and strengthen the public’s confidence that the government’s business is conducted with impartiality and integrity. 

The strategic plan for the Office contains four strategic goals.  In our FY 2004 annual performance plan, OGE set forth additional performance goals for each of these strategic goals.   This report provides a report on OGE’s success in meeting those performance goals. 

            Strategic Goal I:      OGE will provide overall policy direction to the executive branch ethics program. 

The four Performance Goals supporting this strategic goal focus upon OGE’s ability to develop, evaluate and promote ethics policies for employee conduct that protect executive branch processes from conflicts of interest, as well as appearances of conflicts of interest; ensure that these policies are consistent, reasonable, and understandable to employees; serve as the primary authoritative source of Federal executive branch ethics policy; and solicit the advice of agency ethics officials in policy-making processes. 

1. Performance Goal: OGE will maintain a strong working relationship with OMB so that OGE advice is sought and used in 90% of legislative and policy issues having a substantial effect on the Executive Branch ethics program. 
    

OGE continues to maintain a strong working relationship with OMB with regard to the review of legislative materials in the clearance process.  This is evidenced by the continued high level of requests for review (125 in FY 2004), and the fact that OMB employed input from OGE on 100% of those legislative materials that directly involved or affected the ethics program.

 2. Performance Goal:  OGE speaks continuously on a formal or informal basis to ethics officials, enforcement officials, the White House or Congress with regard to any recommendations for changes or additions to present policies or with regard to the recognition of any trends that serve as a precursor to a needed policy change. 

Within six months of formally identifying a needed policy change, OGE will draft a proposal to implement that policy. 

OGE met with ethics officials on a formal and informal basis throughout the year.  The OGE Director held periodic meetings with ethics officials to discuss ethics program and policy issues.  At least one OGE representative attended the monthly interagency ethics council meetings to listen to common concerns that raise policy considerations and we convened informal meetings on various subjects as the need arose.  As a member of the PCIE and the ECIE, the OGE Director was apprised of trends discussed within the investigative community and brought OGE staff counsel  to meetings to discuss ethics issues.  The Agency continued to survey annually all U.S. Attorneys’ offices and the Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Section for information on prosecutions being conducted and continued to work closely with the Public Integrity Section  regarding matters that were referred to them.

3.    Performance Goal: Within six months of determining to seek a needed statutory change, OGE has submitted it for clearance to OMB and, after clearance, pursues it to enactment within 18  months at least 75% of the time.

The public financial disclosure legislation, submitted to Congress in July 2003, was not enacted during this session and therefore was not enacted during the 18 month period.  The proposal applied to all three branches of Government and given other Congressional priorities for the session, neither the House nor the Senate was willing to take the proposal up.

4.   Performance Goal:  OGE will maintain strong relationships with Departments of State and Justice (and others) so that they seek and employ OGE advice and assistance in 90% of the international negotiations or agreements having an actual or potential effect on the executive branch ethics program.

OGE continued to maintain a strong relationship with the Departments of State and Justice and met its goal for providing advice and assistance in international negotiations. 

     Strategic Goal II:      OGE will support the President, executive branch agency ethics heads and employees in administering effective, fair, and consistent ethics programs within the branch and individual agencies. 

The six performance goals supporting this strategic goal focus upon OGE’s ability to provide evaluations of agency ethics programs to agency heads and ethics officials which identify strengths and weaknesses of the program; make specific recommendations for program enhancement designed to help ensure integrity in Government operations; provide timely and accurate written and oral opinions and be available for informal consultations concerning matters involving the applications of the Standards of Ethical Conduct, criminal conflict of interest statutes, and other related statutes and regulations; provide technical assistance to agencies in order to implement well-run and employee-helpful agency ethics programs; provide expert review and conflict of interest analysis of the new, annual and termination financial disclosure reports filed by Presidential appointees requiring Senate confirmation to assist agencies in providing appropriate advice on and taking appropriate actions to prevent financial conflicts of interest by those appointees; evaluate follow-up by agencies and officials regarding ethics commitments made by nominees during the confirmation process; and promote the importance of the ethics program to department and agency heads and other Government officials in order to secure personal commitment and sufficient agency resources.

1.    Performance Goal:  Over a four year cycle, OGE will conduct ethics program evaluations in all Federal agencies focusing OGE’s legal, educational, and program assistance resources in assisting agencies in the development of better ethics systems and the resolution of outstanding ethics issues. OGE will also evaluate major ethics issues during single issue reviews to determine whether OGE and agencies are effectively meeting intended objectives. 

To meet this performance goal, OGE will conduct reviews in 20  agencies and conduct 1 single-issue reviews or surveys in FY 2004. OGE will make recommendations to improve the program when deficiencies are found in systems and procedures.  OGE will also share with agencies the best practices and procedures found during program reviews.  These will be shared with agencies during program reviews, and also publicized on OGE’s Website and other forms of communication and outreach. 

OGE exceeded its goal by conducting 33 program reviews with 50 recommendations for improvements.    All scheduled follow-up reviews were completed with 81% of agency program deficiencies being corrected.   However, OGE did not conduct any single issue reviews in FY 2004.  OGE continued to share best practices  and procedures with agencies.   
                

2. Performance Goal:  OGE will track and monitor the ethics agreements of Presidential appointees confirmed by the Senate concerning their financial interests and ensure that such agreements are completed within 90 days of confirmation or within time frames established during the confirmation process.  Ethics agreements may call for divestitures, qualified trusts, recusals, seeking waivers of 18 U.S.C. § 208, or resignations from positions.  OGE will take action to resolve cases where agreements have not been satisfied.

OGEThere were 141 ethics agreements submitted to OGE in 2004.   Nominees/appointees fully completed all promised actions in 80% of these ethics agreements within 90 days of confirmation or within time frames established during the confirmation process.  All items in the remaining ethics agreements were completed after follow-up by OGE.   
                                                       

3. Performance Goal:  The Program Services Division staff will respond to a large number of requests for advice and information on administering an effective agency ethics program, applying the standards of conduct, the criminal conflict of interest statutes, financial disclosure regulations and other related  rules and regulations.  The advice and information will be adequate in 99% of the cases.  The Program Services Division will initiate the dissemination of information and advice on administering an effective ethics program when necessary and appropriate. 

The Program Services Division staff responded to 2,600 requests for advice and information.  The advice and information was adequate in over 99% of the cases and requests for advice and information were satisfied within two days for 90% of the cases. 

4.       Performance Goal:  The Office of General Counsel and Legal Policy will respond to a large number of requests from agency ethics officials, the DOJ, the White House, IG’s, Congress, executive branch employees, and members of the public for interpretations of the standards of ethical conduct, the criminal conflict of interest statutes, and other related statutes and regulations.  The interpretations will be adequate in 99% of the cases.

In 90% of the cases, OGE attorneys will respond to requests for information and for oral statutory and regulatory interpretations within two workdays of obtaining the information necessary to respond.  In 75% of the cases, OGE attorneys will respond to requests for written statutory and regulatory interpretations within 20 workdays of obtaining the information necessary to respond.  In addition, in order to measure the adequacy of the responses, the Office of General Counsel and Legal Policy will track the number of instances where a requester or other person contacts OGE questioning the adequacy of advice. 

The Office of General Counsel handled 2,694 inquiries during FY 2004.  Of these, well more than 99%  of the responses were adequate and 91% of the requests for information and oral interpretations received a response within two working days or less.   Seventy-five percent  of the requests for written interpretations were responded to within 20 work days or less. 

5.  Performance Goal:  The Director or a member of the staff shall meet with Members of Congress or their staffs on each OGE legislative initiative, on each bill which would amend or add to direct (core) ethics provisions, on each OGE appropriations bill and on at least half of bills seriously considered which contain agency specific ethics measures. 

The Director shall meet with the head of each agency when the agency is to receive or has recently received a notice that the agency’s ethics program is not properly performing. The Director shall inform White House Counsel of any findings by OGE when a corrective action order has been sent to an agency head that the agency’s ethics program is not properly performing.  

Throughout the year OGE met with all appropriate Congressional staff with regard to pending OGE legislation and appropriations.  There were no corrective action orders issued in FY 2004. 

6.  Performance Goal: Track, collect, review, and certify the nominee, annual and termination financial disclosure statements of approximately 1,000 presidential appointees  confirmed by the U.S. Senate to assure Senate confirmation committees and executive branch agencies that appointees’ financial interest are free from conflicts of interest with the position to which they are appointed. OGE will assist filers in fashioning appropriate remedies to alleviate an actual or apparent conflict of interest. Filers may be advised to consider undertaking several different types of actions which are tailor-made to suit the circumstances.  These actions such as commitments to divest, create a qualified trust, recuse in certain circumstances, resign from certain positions or seek waivers of conflicts or impartially standards will be memorialized in ethics agreements that are approved by OGE. 

There were 236 nominee financial disclosure statements received in FY 2004.  Of these, 96.2% were certified and opinions rendered to the Senate within two weeks of either the nomination or OGE’s receipt of receiving the final certified form from the agency.  OGE received 950 annual and termination statements from various agencies and reviewed 80.9% within 60 days of receipt.   Although this marks an improvement over FY 2003 it was still short of the 90% goal for reviewing the statements within 60 days of receipt.  The continued shortage of experienced review staff for half of the year, along with an increased emphasis on the provision of training, hampered the staff in being able to fully achieve this goal. 

            Strategic Goal III:  OGE will develop and make available to agencies innovative training and ethics education materials and promote and provide quality education and training experiences for agency ethics officials and employees. 

The three  performance goals supporting this strategic goal focus on OGE’s ability to provide quality education and training courses for agency ethics officials; provide accurate, consistent, beneficial and cost effective materials for agencies to use in their ethics education and training programs for employees; and create opportunities for inter-agency educational programs to disseminate information and encourage the sharing of ideas and knowledge. 

1. Performance Goal:  Within the second quarter of the FY, the Education Division will  perform an annual ethics training and education needs analysis executive branch wide to 1) identify subjects ethics officials feel need to be emphasized in training courses and educational products developed by OGE for employees and ethics officials, and 2) identify agencies’ logistical needs,  i.e., locations for conducting OGE ethics training courses and the types, media and distribution of educational products. 

During the third quarter of the FY, the Education Division will determine what topics and the types of courses and products it will begin to develop during the FY.  During the fourth quarter of the FY, the Education Division will develop a plan and schedule to produce these courses and educational products and will follow that schedule. 

During the first half of the FY, the Education Division will be completing course development and educational products begun in the previous fiscal year. 

By the beginning of the FY, the Education Division will have developed an evaluation instrument to evaluate each of the OGE conducted training courses during the fiscal year.  The Education Division will collect and analyze the evaluations completed by students attending the courses.  The Education Division will use the results of the analysis to monitor the effectiveness of the courses and to identify areas where improvement is warranted or that have been especially effective. 

The Education Division will encourage agencies, which use OGE developed training products(such as web based training, pamphlets or videos) to train employees, to evaluate the effectiveness of those products.  The Education Division will supply agencies that agree to administer an evaluation with a short evaluation instrument. 

The Education Division performed one training needs  analysis during FY 2004 with  input from 78 agencies.  A total of 115 training courses were conducted for agency ethics officials and 17 were conducted for employees (at their agencies’ request).  Student evaluations indicate an overall score of 4.16 (on a 1-5 point scale) which exceeded our target of 4 points  for the overall rating of our training courses.  OGE’s web site received over 8,572,006 visits and 10,718 educational products were downloaded from OGE’s web site.   

2.  Performance Goal:  Annually OGE will develop, administer, and analyze an executive branch-wide survey to determine the state of the ethics program, identifying trends and areas of weakness/strength which OGE  will incorporate into and address in its policy-making, interpretation and opinion function. 
         

OGE sent surveys to 125  executive branch agencies and received completed surveys from all.  The data in these surveys is used to analyze issues and trends in the ethics program as well as providing a secondary needs analysis for additional training materials.  The surveys are also reviewed by OGE analysts before beginning a review of an agency’s ethics program. 
          

3.  Performance Goal:  OGE will plan, develop, host and conduct an annual ethics conference for approximately 450 executive branch ethics officials where attendees will have an opportunity to participate in working sessions on the most current and common ethics issues, receive updates from OGE on all aspects of the ethics program and hear from outside sources and each other on the administration of their ethics programs.  Immediately after the annual conference, OGE will identify from among the best rated concurrent sessions those that would be relevant for presentation to the regions. These sessions will be offered to ethics officials at selected regional locations as well as in Washington, D.C
.                                               

OGE’s FY 2004 Annual Ethics Conference was attended by 529  persons with 75% of the executive branch agencies represented.  The conference received a score of 3.67 (on a 1-4 point scale) from attendees which exceeded our of target of 3 points.  The conference continues to be a key element in educating and training ethics officials.    
       

            Strategic Goal IV:      OGE will administer an effective outreach program. 

The 4 Performance Goals supporting this strategic goal focus upon OGE’s ability to foster a greater appreciation on the part of the public and future employees of the fact that there is a strong ethics program for employees of the executive branch and that ethics standards are enforced, as well as to share the programmatic and policy development experiences of OGE with other governments, non-profit organizations, corporations, professional and trade associations, and institutions of higher education who are pursuing the development or enhancement of their own educational or ethics programs. 

1.  Performance Goal:  OGE will seek to participate in 20 in-person or electronic presentations  where the public will be able to hear about the executive branch ethics program and will pursue the publication of one article or speech by an OGE employee about the program (with a circulation of at least 2000.)        
   

 During FY 2004, OGE made 20  presentations to non-Federal groups. Additionally, there was one article published about the ethics program. 

2. Performance Goal:  During FY 2004, OGE will maintain an Ethics Information E-Mail Service to enhance communications from OGE to the executive branch ethics and enforcement communities.  This will ensure that executive branch ethics officials and enforcement personnel throughout the world receive timely announcements from OGE of the latest Daeograms, advisory opinions, training announcements, scheduled program reviews, report deadlines, and other materials that will aid them in maintaining effective ethics programs. 

During FY 2004, OGE had 2,134 subscriptions representing 125 agencies to our Ethics Information E-Mail Service.  Forty-three announcements were made using this service. 

3.  Performance Goal:  OGE will establish target levels of responsiveness to requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act and the Privacy Act (FOIA/PA), as well as requests for public financial disclosure forms (SF 278), ethics agreements, waivers issued under 18 U.S.C.  § 208(b), certificates of divestiture, blind trust documents, reports of agency acceptance of travel reimbursement under 41 U.S.C. § 1353.  To meet this Performance Goal, OGE will establish internal response deadlines and meet them in 90% of the cases. 
                      

 The goals for response deadlines for requests for SF 278's, ethics agreements, waivers under 18 U.S.C. § 208(b), certificates of divestiture, blind trust documents, and agency § 1353 reports were met.  The number of FOIA/PA requests more than doubled  from 38 in FY 03 to 80 in FY 04.  As a result 61.3% of the requests for information under FOIA/PA were completed within 20 days of receipt.
 

4.  Performance Goal:  OGE’s provision of technical assistance and information to representatives of foreign countries results in a positive, tangible response from recipients of more limited informational briefings at least 10% of the time and from recipients who receive more extensive (possibly in-country) assistance 50% of the time. 

OGE continued to meet with delegations in our office (35 briefings, 310 participants, representing 80 countries), and continued to carry out specific programs requested by State and Justice.  In addition, OGE served as a member of the team representing the U.S. in its successful evaluation by the Council of Europe (GRECO).