December 12, 1995 DO-95-040 MEMORANDUM TO: Designated Agency Ethics Officials, General Counsels and Inspectors General FROM: Stephen D. Potts Director SUBJECT: Program Plan of Agency Reviews for Calendar Year 1996 Attached for your information is the program plan of agency ethics reviews scheduled by the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) for calendar year 1996. This is to inform you of our schedule for the year and the opportunity for you to meet with OGE staff to discuss our program review objectives and procedures. It also allows you time to make revisions to your program prior to our review. The program plan may be of some assistance as you address budget issues within your agency. We will attempt as much as possible to follow the schedule set forth in the attachment. However, as past experience has shown, the schedule may change due to complex issues that occur during reviews, staffing problems, or higher priority work within OGE. If reviews from the first quarter are cancelled, we will pull up agencies from later quarters and review them earlier than anticipated. To assist those of you who wish to become more familiar with our program review procedures, our analysts will hold two brown-bag luncheons to discuss procedures and answer any of your questions. If you are interested in attending one of these luncheons on either January 17 or 18, 1996, please call Phyllis Hoffer on 202-523-5757, extension 1184, by January 12. Attendance is open to all agencies, whether or not the agency is scheduled for review in 1996. _______________________________________________________________________ Designated Agency Ethics Officials, General Counsels and Inspectors General Page 2 OGE also will perform two single issue reviews in 1996. If you have any thoughts on issues you would like to see included within these reviews, please call Jack Covaleski at 202-523-5757, ext. 1120. The first review will focus on the structure of ethics offices within the executive branch. We will explore such issues as: --Should there be a career path for ethics officials? --Should there be a certification program that clearly defines training courses for ethics officials? --Where should the ethics office reside--in a department or agency? --Are there several model ethics programs which appear to work best in certain types of agencies, such as small or large agencies, or scientific or military agencies? --What other protection, if any, is needed by the Designated Agency Ethics Officials? --How can ethics offices be protected when agency budgets are cut? --Is there a correlation between the size of the ethics staff and the size of the agency? Much of this review will focus on interviews with DAEO's in the executive branch. Please be thinking about these issues. Our second single issue review will focus on the ethics education and training program. We want to evaluate how well this program has operated since OGE's training regulations went into effect. Part of this review will include interviewing groups of employees to measure the impact of ethics training. Our usual practice once a review has been completed is to send a report to the DAEO with recommendations for improving the program. We ask that the DAEO respond to our recommendations within 60 days as to the actions he/she has taken or plans to take. We do not send our reports to the Congress, although about twice a year a Congressional committee will ask for a copy of a report for an agency under its jurisdiction. These requests are granted and the agency DAEO is informed that we have received such a request. Past experience has shown that these requests normally are made a year or more after the review has been finished. We do not send copies of our reports to the news media, nor issue press releases concerning the reports. Periodically we do release reports to the news media in response to Freedom of Information Act requests. _______________________________________________________________________ Designated Agency Ethics Officials, General Counsels and Inspectors General Page 3 The agency DAEO will be contacted by phone approximately one month prior to our entrance into the agency. Should there be a serious reason as to why you cannot receive us at that time, please call Ed Pratt, Chief, Program Review Division, at 202-523-5757, ext. 1115, to discuss rescheduling. In the past we have found the review process to operate very smoothly. In many instances agencies use our report to get more support, staffing and funding for the ethics program. Please inform us the problems you may have in this regard, as such problems will be brought to the attention of the agency head. We hope that this answers some of your questions concerning our program review process. Should you have any questions or need assistance other than that listed above, please call Jack Covaleski, Associate Director for Program Assistance and Review, at 202-523-5757, ext. 1120. Attachment _______________________________________________________________________ OFFICE OF GOVERNMENT ETHICS 1996 PROGRAM PLAN OF AGENCY REVIEWS PROGRAM REVIEW SCHEDULE JANUARY - MARCH 1996 1. Department of the Air Force --Office of the Secretary --Office of the Assistant Secretary for Acquisition --Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics 2. Department of the Army --Office of the Secretary --Office of the Surgeon General --Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research, Development, and Acquisition 3. Department of Defense --Office of the Secretary --Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health Affairs --The Joint Chiefs of Staff 4. Department of the Navy --Office of the Secretary --Naval Sea Systems Command --Office of the Chief of Naval Operations 5. Drug Enforcement Agency (Department of Justice) 6. Department of Veterans Affairs -- Office of the Secretary -- Chicago Regional Office and the Chicago Medical Center at 333 E. Huron Street -- Philadelphia Regional Office and the Philadelphia Medical Center at University and Woodland Avenues -- Baltimore Regional Office and the Baltimore Medical Center at 3900 Loch Haven Road 7. Office of Science and Technology Policy 8. Newport, Rhode Island --Naval Undersea Warfare Center --Naval Education and Training Center 9. Los Angeles, CA --Naval Air Weapons Station (China Lake, CA) a. Naval Research and Development Facility --Edwards Air Force Base (Rosamond, CA) a. Air Force Flight Test Center b. Air Materiel Command 10. Naval Base, Norfolk, VA --Naval Air Station Norfolk --Naval Station Norfolk --Naval Surface Forces, Atlantic --Naval Submarine Forces, Atlantic 11. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System 12. Executive Office of the President - The White House Office 13. Naval Facilities Engineering Command _______________________________________________________________________ PROGRAM REVIEW SCHEDULE APRIL - JUNE 1996 1. Department of Justice --Office of the Attorney General --Civil Division --Land and Natural Resources Division --Tax Division --Civil Rights Division 2. Department of Housing and Urban Development 3. Fine Arts Commission 4. Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (OH) --Air Force Materiel Command 5. Fort Rucker (Daleville, AL) --U.S. Army Aviation Center and School --U.S. Army School of Aviation Medicine 6. Department of Labor --Office of the Secretary --Mine Safety and Health Administration --Occupational Safety and Health Administration --Employment and Training Administration --Employment Standards Administration 7. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (HHS) 8. Department of Transportation --Office of the Secretary --Maritime Administration --Federal Highway Administration --Bureau of Transportation Statistics 9. Scott Air Force Base (Belleville, IL) --Air Mobility Command --Air Force Communications Command --U.S. Transportation Command SINGLE ISSUE REVIEW: 1. Review of the structure and staffing of agency ethics programs. _______________________________________________________________________ PROGRAM REVIEW SCHEDULE JULY - SEPTEMBER 1996 1. Department of the Interior --Office of the Secretary --Bureau of Land Management --U.S. Geological Survey --National Park Service 2. U. S. Sentencing Commission 3. Ft. Knox (Louisville, KY) --U.S. Army Armor Training Center 4. Kirtland Air Force Base (Albuquerque, NM) --Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center 5. Department of Agriculture --Office of the Secretary --Foreign Agricultural Service --Agricultural Marketing Service --Rural Housing and Community Development Service --Rural Business and Cooperative Development Agency 6. Department of the Treasury --Office of the Secretary --U.S. Secret Service --Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms --Bureau of Public Debt 7. Office of Management and Budget 8. Office of National Drug Control Policy 9. Naval Training Center (Great Lakes, IL) --Recruit Training Command --Service School Command 10. Advisory Council on Historic Preservation SINGLE ISSUE REVIEW: 1. Review of department and agency ethics education and training programs. _______________________________________________________________________ PROGRAM REVIEW SCHEDULE OCTOBER - DECEMBER 1996 1. Department of Commerce --Office of the Secretary --National Technical Information Service --Bureau of Economic Analysis 2. Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals 3. Office of Special Counsel 4. Andrews Air Force Base (Camp Springs, MD) --89th Airlift Wing 5. Peterson Air Force Base (Colorado) --U.S. Air Force Space Command --21st Space Wing 6. African Development Foundation 7. D.W. Taylor Naval Ship Research and Development Center (Bethesda, MD) 8. Department of Health and Human Services -- Office of the Secretary -- Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (HHS) -- Administration on Aging -- Health Resources and Services Administration -- Indian Health Service 9. Department of Energy