November 23,1998
				DO-98-032

                  
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 1999
         
	Attached for your information is the program plan of agency
ethics reviews scheduled by the Office of Government Ethics (OGE)
for calendar year 1999.  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 canceled, we will pull up 
agencies from later quarters and review them earlier than
anticipated. Certain reviews that were not completed last year are
included for review early in 1999.
     
	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 12 or February 2, 1999, please call Ilene Cranisky on 202-
208-8000, extension 1218. Attendance is open to all agencies,
whether or not the agency is scheduled for review in 1999.
         
         




Designated Agency Ethics Officials,
General Counsels and Inspectors General
Page 2
        
	One issue that we make recommendations on very frequently 
involves the collection of new entrant financial disclosure
reports. Please be sure that adequate systems have been established
to collect public and confidential financial disclosure reports
from new entrants within 30 days of their entering on duty.
         
	Our usual practice once a review has been completed is to send
a report to the Designated Agency Ethics Official (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, but occasionally 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.
         
	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 202-208-8000,
ext. 1115, to discuss rescheduling.
         
	This year we are continuing our customer program review
evaluation form for you to complete when you receive the report. We
 ask that you take a few moments to provide us with feedback on the
usefulness of our reviews and reports, and identify areas for
improvement. Thank you for all the comments you gave us this past
year; they have been useful in modifying our review techniques.
         
     We hope that this answers some of your questions concerning
our program review process.  Should you have any other questions,
please call Jack Covaleski, Associate Director for Agency Programs,
at 202-208-8000, ext. 1120.

Attachment