Public Ethics Worksheet II: Federal Government Ethics Analysis

This homework assignment analyzes public ethics, focusing on the United States Office of Government Ethics (USOGE) and its legislative mandate. The assignment addresses the standards of ethical conduct for executive branch employees, including general provisions, gifts, financial interests, and impartiality. It explores how corruption and ethics violations can be reported at the federal level, emphasizing the role of the Inspector General and the Department of Justice. The assignment also presents a case study involving an administrator's unethical behavior related to a contractor, discussing the legal and ethical issues, and the appropriate steps to report suspicions. References to relevant literature such as Kettl (2013), Svara (2014), Rose-Ackerman & Palifka (2016), and Bercovitz & Tyler (2014) are included to support the analysis of public ethics and government conduct.

Running head: PUBLIC ETHICS
Public ethics
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WORKSHEET II
Question 1a: What is the agency’s legislative mandate? (What is it required to do by law?)
Answer – The United States Office of Government Ethics agency’s legislative mandate is
imposed upon its executive branch employees, elected officials of the executive and legislative
branches, and the former officers. The law states that every employee has to abide by the
USOGE’s established standards of conduct in order to ensure transparency in government
through financial disclosure (Kettl, 2013).
Question 1b: Name five of the standards for ethical conduct of employees of the executive
branch.
Answer – The names of those five standards for ethical conduct of employees of the executive
branch are listed below (Svara, 2014):
 General Provisions
 Gifts from Outside Sources
 Gifts Between Employees
 Conflicting Financial Interests
 Impartiality in Performing Official Duties
Question 1c: What would you add to the list?
Answer – The ethical conducts that I would like to add to the list are namely - Improving clarity
and making technical corrections while establishing the executive branch standards of conduct.
Question 1d: What are the ways corruption or ethics violations can be reported at the federal
level?

Answer - If the ethical officers have any complaints or information concerning possible
corruption or ethics violations, the agency should coordinate with its office of Inspector General,
or similar investigative unit, to make sure the matter is addressed to the Department of Justice.
The matter involving corruption or ethics violations can also be reported to the United States
Attorney at the federal level (Rose-Ackerman and Palifka, 2016).
Question 1e: What was most interesting to you about the information on the site? What did you
learn?
Answer – The most interesting facts I gathered on the site is that the agency is doing everything
to train more employees than in the past regarding ethics regulations. The director of the agency
is more focused on the impartiality rule that ensures effective and efficient government ethics
training regulations.

Problem:
Question 1: An administrator for a federal housing agency pushes through administrative rules
that facilitate hiring a contractor who pays him a kickback for the contract. What are the
legal/ethical issues?
Answer – The first legal/ethical issue associated with this case is that the hired contractor has
violated conduct of conduct that safeguards the ethics related to contractor conflicts of interest.
The second ethical issue associated with this case is that the hired contractor has violated
conduct of conduct that addresses the need to maintain the best practices in terms of the
prevention of organizational and personal conflicts of interest while Federal contracting. Thus,
the administrator can file a complaint against the hired contractor on the term that the person has
violated these two ethical safeguards (Bercovitz and Tyler, 2014).
Question 2: As an employee of the agency you suspect the arrangement made between the
administrator and the contractor. It disappoints you because you have always admired the
administrator – i.e. you have no axes to grind with him. What should/can you do to report your
suspicions? Who do you tell?
Answer – In the following case, in order to report the suspicion, it is highly advisable to talk to
administrator engaged in federal contracting with the contractor about his arrangement. To
support the conversation, a proper rationale approach should be presented about why the
arrangement made between him administrator and the contractor are doubtful. In case the
administrator is not listening, then the issue must be addressed to a higher government official in
an attempt to save the agency from loss.

References
Kettl, D. F. (2013). Politics of the administrative process. Cq Press.
Svara, J. H. (2014). The ethics primer for public administrators in government and nonprofit
organizations. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Rose-Ackerman, S., & Palifka, B. J. (2016). Corruption and government: Causes, consequences,
and reform. Cambridge university press.
Bercovitz, J. E., & Tyler, B. B. (2014). Who I am and how I contract: The effect of contractors’
roles on the evolution of contract structure in university–industry research agreements.
Organization Science, 25(6), 1840-1859.