Justice Management Division
Serving Justice - Securing Results

Generally, an employee should recognize her responsibility to make an honest effort to use government property and official time for official business only. An employee may not use the official time of another employee for anything other than official business.

5 C.F.R. § 2635.704 (see Subpart G - Misuse of Position; use of government property)

Department of Justice employees are generally authorized to make personal use of most office equipment and library facilities where the cost to the Government is negligible and on an employee's own time. 28 C.F.R. § 45.4. In addition to the use of government property, employees are authorized by memorandum dated January 13, 1997, to make personal use of the Internet as described in the memorandum. There are security and other concerns that arise with any Internet use, so employees should also familiarize themselves with memoranda on use of the Internet dated March 11, 1998 and December 9, 1998.

The use of any government property, including the Internet, for partisan political activities is prohibited. On December 20, 1999, a memorandum was issued on accessing political websites.

Under the Department's policy on the use of its electronic mail systems, an employee may send a short, personal message to another employee. However, personal messages sent to groups of people and messages sent to disseminate information on non-Governmental activities, such as charitable events, religious observances and personal businesses, are prohibited. While this policy addresses the Department's old mail systems (EAGLE and AMICUS), it is still valid and applies to all Department mail systems.