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4. Looseleaf Handbook Keeps Employees Up-To-Date

Looseleaf Handbook Keeps Employees Up-To-Date

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) administers an ethics training program for 2,500 headquarters, regional, and district employees. SEC's program provides many opportunities for SEC employees to obtain up-to-date ethics information.

The initial agency ethics orientation for new headquarters employees is conducted during biweekly sessions by SEC ethics officials. The ethics officials alert new employees to specific ethics issues that have arisen at SEC and provide them with a copy of SEC's Employee Ethics Handbook (Handbook). The Handbook is a looseleaf binder that includes copies of the executive branchwide standards of conduct, explanatory memoranda and materials concerning ethics rules, a list of ethics officials, and sample financial disclosure forms. New employees at regional and district offices are also provided a copy of the Handbook. All employees are required to certify that they have spent one hour of official time reviewing the materials in the Handbook.

SEC has produced a videotape for use in annual training sessions. The annual training, including the videotape, is designed to concentrate primarily on a single topic. Thus, employees consider a new topic in detail each year rather than attending repetitive training sessions year after year.

SEC has also held additional training sessions at headquarters and regional offices (including sessions for division and field ethics officials) covering specific topics such as gifts, post employment, and financial interests.

Periodically, SEC ethics officials distribute memoranda to all SEC employees on ethics-related matters. These documents are intended to supplement or update the Handbook. Ethics officials also publish a column in the SEC employees' newsletter covering issues such as financial disclosure, conflicts of interest, and gifts. All departing SEC employees are provided a memorandum concerning post-employment restrictions.