Department of Defense	March 30, 2000
Office of General Counsel	Number 00-03
Standards of Conduct Office

1.  OGE Offers Introductory and Intermediate Courses in Five Cities in April and May.

      OGE is offering introductory and intermediate courses in a wide variety of ethics issues in Salt Lake City, Philadelphia, Boston, Dallas, and Denver during April and May. The price is right. To sign up, download the registration forms from the "What's New in Ethics" page of the OGE website, www.usoge.gov.

2.  DoD Changes Rules on Conferences

      The Per Diem, Travel and Transportation Allowance Committee changed the JTR and JTFR, effective March 7, 2000, regarding conference planning. (See MAP Item 65-99/CAP item 57-99 dated March 7, 2000.) These changes reflect recent changes in the Federal Travel Regulations made by the General Services Administration (41 C.F.R. Parts 301-11 and 301-74) which were published in the Federal Register (Vol 65, No. 6) on January 10, 2000 at page 1326.

      To enhance flexibility in the selection of appropriate lodging facilities for DoD Agency conferences, the lodging portion of the established per diem rate may be exceeded by up to 25%. Furthermore, appropriated funds may be used to purchase light refreshments for agency employees attending the conferences. Check out the Committee's valuable and current website at: http://www.dtic.mil/perdiem.

3.  OGE Bears Down on Use of Brokerage Statements as Part of Financial Disclosure Reports

      In a memo dated February 22, 2000, OGE announced that it would no longer accept brokerage statements as part of financial disclosure reports unless the statements met OGE's stringent requirements that the statements be clear and concise, readily disclose all information which the filer is required to disclose, and do not require the reviewer to perform extensive mathematical calculations. Our experience is that few brokerage statements, except perhaps end-of-year statements, meet this criteria.

      OGE advises that it will not accept deficient statements when they review an agency's financial disclosure records during their program reviews. www.usoge.gov/daeogram/2000/do00007.txt.

4.  Reminder: Report due on Travel Expenses Accepted Pursuant to 31 U.S.C. 1353.

      The 6-month reporting period (41 C.F.R. 304-1.9(a)) for official travel to meetings or similar events paid for by non-Federal entities ends on March 31. Reports, for those gifts that exceed $250, are due to the Office of Government Ethics, through the chain of command, by May 31.

5.  Federal Employee who Violated Hatch Act Suspended 30 days

      A Postal Service employee recently was suspended for 30 days without pay because he violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits Federal employees from engaging in certain political activities. The employee, after consulting with his supervisor, ran for the position of a school board officer, a local political office. The Office of Special Counsel (OSC) provides extensive guidance on political activities of Federal employees on its website at www.osc.gov. In addition, OSC counsel may be reached at (202) 653-7143, or by email at Hatchact@osc.gov. (Special Counsel v. Pierce, MSPB, Docket No CB-1216-99-0063-T-1, February 24, 2000.)