Ethics Office

What this funds

Summary of Program Changes Table: Ethics Office Justification of Program Changes Narrative: Ethics Office The 2027 budget request for the Ethics Office is $16,416,000 and 57 FTE, a program change of commitment to streamlining government operations, with a strong focus on efficiency and effectiveness. The Office will support and drive efforts to optimize common administrative and support services across the Department and within the Office, ensuring that resources are utilized strategically to maximize productivity and cost savings. Also, the Office will evaluate space utilization and plan on reducing, consolidating, and optimizing office space at all locations. Ethics Office Overview and Program Description The Departmental Ethics Office (DEO) oversees Interior's statutorily mandated ethics program and derives its authority directly from the Secretary, who, by regulation, is the head of the agency's ethics program. The DEO is responsible for implementing the laws, executive orders, regulations, and departmental policies concerning conflicts of interest and employee responsibilities and conduct. The DEO is led by a director, who is also the Designated Agency Ethics Official (DAEO). The DAEO has delegated the responsibility to manage and coordinate Interior's Ethics program. The DEO also ensures the implementation of and compliance with the Ethics in Government Act of 1989, other statutes with ethics provisions, Executive Order 12674: Principles of Ethical Conduct for Government Officers and Employees, government-wide ethics regulations, and Interior's supplemental ethics regulations and The DEO develops Departmental ethics policy and strives to provide every Interior employee the accurate and timely counseling and technical assistance. The DEO seeks to integrate ethical concepts into everyday decision-making to foster and maintain high ethical standards for Interior employees. The DEO is also responsible for identifying areas of emerging or significant ethics risk. The DEO provides direct ethics services to all Department employees, including in the Immediate Office of the Secretary; the Assistant Secretary - Policy, Management and Budget; the Office of the Solicitor; as well as all political employees. The DEO also manages the Hatch Act compliance program for Interior. Pursuant to various regulations, the DEO is required to perform the following functions: ' Oversight and Technical Assistance to Bureaus: Regulations require that the DAEO administer a process for periodic evaluation of the ethics program and its components. The DEO is directly responsible for administering ethics programs for all DOI bureaus and offices. The DEO also provides live training on topics important to the consistent management of the bureaus' ethics ' Presidential Appointments: In coordination with the White House Counsel's Office, and the United States Office of Government Ethics (OGE), the DEO plays a critical role in the clearance process of political nominees to Presidentially Appointed-Senate Confirmed positions. Additionally, the DEO works with Interior's Office of Congressional and Legislative Affairs to ' Financial Disclosure: The DEO is responsible for ensuring that the public and confidential financial disclosure reporting requirements set out by regulation are met. Department-wide, there are approximately 12,000 filers of both public and confidential financial disclosure forms each year, each of which must be certified by the DEO. Financial disclosure is the foundation of a Federal ethics program. This information is critical for ethics officials to provide timely and accurate advice to employees about potential conflicts of interest. ' Training: The DEO is responsible for providing relevant and engaging ethics training and education to new employees and annual training for all confidential and public financial disclosure filers. All report filers are required to receive annual training. ' Counseling: The DEO is responsible for maintaining a system for counseling employees on all ethics matters, including interpretations of the criminal financial conflict of interest statutes, the post-employment statute, as well as all standards of conduct regulations (both government-wide ' Liaison Role: The DAEO is required to be Interior's liaison with the OGE for all matters relating to the management of the ethics program, performing this role with the White House Counsel's Office and the Office of Special Counsel. ' Policy and Compliance: The DEO develops and deploys ethics policies and procedures compliant with the Ethics in Government Act of 1978, other statutes with ethics provisions, including criminal financial conflicts of interest statutes, the Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch, and other government-wide ethics and political activity regulations.

Extracted from Office of the Solicitor, p. 23. Verbatim; nothing here is paraphrased.

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