Official Duty Activities are those activities performed by an employee as part of, or an extension of, regular official responsibilities. This discussion refers to official duty activities with an outside organization. The Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch (at 5 CFR 2635) provide the basic guidelines for official duty activities, and the NIH sets the policy for implementing the guidelines at the NIH. An employee may participate in such activities only with advance approval as indicated below. For questions about specific activities, contact your IC's Deputy Ethics Counselor or Ethics Coordinator.
The activities an employee performs must be related to his/her official duties. Any official work performed with an outside organization must also be consistent with the authority and mission of the NIH. There should be compelling agency policy reasons for official duty activities with outside organizations. The activity must be avoided if the outside organization engages in lobbying or otherwise takes public positions on matters of significant controversy involving the NIH. Such activity should be limited where it is likely that the outside organization may become involved in legal disputes or other actions (e.g., medical care, personnel) that could subject it to liability. Because the activities are related to the employee's job, the employee may use non-confidential official information:
- that is available to the public or necessary to the work at hand, including information drawn from his/her current work or any work performed within the last 12-month period;
- associated with previous work (i.e., any matter in which the employee was involved prior to the last 12 months) regardless of whether it has been publicly disclosed; and
- that involves any on-going or announced NIH policy, program, or operation (rather than the outside organization's or the employee's general scientific or professional knowledge).
NIH Official Duty Policy Documents (all are in pdf format)
January 23, 2008, Memo from the NIH Deputy Ethics Counselor notifying ICs about the new policy. The policy consists of 3 primary elements:- Introductory Statement: Official Duty Policy
- Conflicts Assessment Sheet
- Official Duty Activity table (1/23/08) of examples and approval level required.
See also the June 1, 2007, memo from the NIH Deputy Ethics Counselor to the IC Directors implementing the option to use a blanket official duty activity request to obtain permission for several official duty activities together. A blanket official duty activity request memo template is available on the forms page.
The extramural community has two additional guidance documents applicable to extramural staff only:
- Conflict of Interest Procedures for Extramural NIH Employees in the Conduct of Their Official Duties
- Case Studies: Extramural Official Duties and Conflicts of Interests (16 pages), includes the following case studies:
- An Extramural Scientist with Significant Intramural Responsibilities
- Giving Scientific Advice to an IC Director on Extramural Activities
- Scientific Officers on Cooperative Agreements
- Intramural & Extramural Scientific Research Collaboration within the Same IC
- How Collaborative Relationships that Change Over Time can Impact Conflicts of Interests - Giving Lectures
- IC Directors and Mentorship
- IC Directors with Intramural Laboratories Collaborating with Extramural Organizations
- Extramural Science Administrators Reviewing Manuscripts
- SRAs and Conflicts -- Managing a Workshop
- Public-Private Partnerships
- Another Public-Private Partnership
- Conflicts Emerging from Collaborations with For-Profit Organizations (Does size and structure matter?)
Memo to Request Approval of Official Duty Activity This memo is used to request approval of certain activities involving outside organizations which are outside your regular official duties but will be performed as part of your official duty. Three samples are provided, as described below. |
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1. Requests from employees to their IC Deputy
Ethics Counselor or Supervisor (Rev 9/07) |
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| 2. Requests from NIH Senior Employees (Top 5), DECs, and OD staff to the NIH DEC (Rev 1/28/06) | ||
| 3. Blanket Official Duty Request Memo (7/07) See the June 1, 2007, memo from NIH DEC to IC Directors. | ||
Publication Copyright and Public Access Issues
An employee working in an official capacity is working on behalf of the NIH,
not in a personal capacity, and must follow the NIH Employee Procedures for Complying with NIH Public Access Policy.
Additional Guidelines for Official Duty Activities With Outside Organizations
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Advance Approval Required: Official duty activities must be requested and approved before an employee may participate in an activity with an outside organization. Most activities may be approved by the supervisor, while other activities require approval by the Deputy Ethics Counselor. The IC may determine whether supervisory permission will be given verbally or in writing (email is acceptable in most cases).
Note: Please send all official duty actions for IC Directors that require either an ethics OR supervisory review to NEO, and not directly to Dr. Kington's office.
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Compensation: An employee is compensated by the Federal government for performing his/her official duties. Therefore, an employee may not accept any additional compensation from an outside organization or source for performing his/her official duties. This does not include travel or per diem expenses which may be allowable with prior approval through the HHS-348 sponsored travel process (sponsored travel is a gift to the agency, not to the employee). In appropriate circumstances, acceptance of monetary awards is permissible (see also Acceptance of Awards and Honorary Degrees).
Note: If an organization expresses a desire to give an honorarium to an Institute or Center because the employee cannot accept an honorarium for an Official Duty Activity, the organization must be referred to the IC Executive Officer or Budget Officer. If an employee helps determine to whom the funds are given in lieu of an honorarium, it would be deemed "constructive receipt" of the honorarium on the employee's part, which is prohibited.
- Official Time: An employee who performs his/her officially assigned
duties and responsibilities with outside organizations is working on official
time and therefore he/she is not required to take annual leave or leave
without pay.
- Use of Government Resources: An employee may use Government
equipment, supplies, services, and staff to carry out his/her assigned duties
with outside organizations. The employee travels using Government travel
orders, and may travel on an approved HHS-348 if applicable.
- Use of NIH Space: An employee may use NIH space and facilities when
needed to accomplish official duty work with an outside organization. Meeting
rooms and other space must be requested in the same manner as for any internal
NIH function.
- Use of Official Titles: Outside organizations may use the official titles of an employee as a reference, identifier, or to promote attendance at public meetings or presentations, when the employee is participating in an official capacity. (Official title may not be used to imply endorsement of the organization or its products or services, if any.) See also Use of Official Title in Activities with Outside Organizations.
- Official Duty and Outside Activities with the Same Organization: An
employee usually may not engage in official duty activities while, at the same
time, engaging in outside activities with the same organization.
Exception: An employee may perform outside activities and official duty activities with the same outside organization during the same time period if all three of the following exist:
- the outside activity involves: a position (elected or appointed) in the organization, i.e., professional association; or an appointment to an academic/medical institution with no compensation or minimal compensation and limited teaching responsibilities; and
- the official duty involves the presentation of research related information; and
- the employee obtains a waiver from his/her Deputy Ethics Counselor when
the determination is made that the conflicting financial interest is not so
substantial as to be deemed likely to affect the integrity of the services
which the Government may expect from the employee. A signed waiver must
accompany both outside activity requests and requests for payment-in-kind
(HHS-348).
- Participation in the Business Affairs of Outside Organizations: An
employee performing an official duty activity may not participate in
making decisions or taking actions that affect the internal business affairs
of the organization, including:
- personnel actions regarding the staff of the organization and/or establishing their compensation and benefits;
- the financial management of the organization, including sources and disposition of the income of the organization, management of investment portfolios, or other related matters; or,
- fund-raising activities.
This type of participation MAY be authorized for employees who serve as officers or directors of outside organizations under compelling conditions AND with a waiver. Consult with your Deputy Ethics Counselor if this situation applies to you.
- Federal Liaison Activities: For some activities with outside
organizations, it is important that an employee formally represent the
interests of NIH. When an employee is asked to serve as a spokesperson for NIH
policies or programs with an outside organization, he/she is designated as a
Federal liaison to the organization
- A Federal liaison must serve as a non-voting, non-fiduciary agency representative to the outside organization. (In some standard setting organizations, there is authority for the Federal Liaisons to vote.)
- An employee serving in this capacity must not participate in the internal or business affairs, or fund-raising activities of the outside organization.
- For all other purposes, the employee is subject to the same provisions that apply to NIH employees engaged in official duty activities.
- An employee may participate as a Federal liaison on Government time, use Government equipment and services, and travel on Government travel orders.
For additional information, contact your IC's Deputy Ethics Counselor or Ethics Coordinator.
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Updated: 10/13/08 |