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Written Annual Ethics Briefing and Questionnaire

In 1997, the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA) implemented the new training regulation for non-public filers by providing a written ethics briefing to its confidential filers and special Government employees. Accompanying the ethics materials were a questionnaire entitled "What Would You Do?" and a pre-addressed postage-paid envelope for returning the questionnaire.

The questionnaire contains seven scenarios which require consideration of the ethics laws and regulations. Each scenario is followed by four answer choices and spaces to indicate the correct answer choice and cite the applicable law or regulation.

The employees were required to certify to completion of training on the last page of the questionnaire and were given a suspense date for the return of the questionnaire. The returned questionnaires were "graded" by the ACDA ethics staff. The DAEO contacted those employees who responded incorrectly to the scenarios to discuss the ethics matter at hand and the correct answer choice.

This method of training requires employee participation and provides for interaction between ethics officials and ACDA employees. In addition, based upon the responses on the questionnaire, ACDA ethics officials are able to identify problem areas for its employees which may warrant attention in the future. Finally, the written certification facilitates the process of monitoring to ensure that all covered employees received the annual ethics briefing.