November 21, 1996 DO-96-049 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 1997 Attached for your information is the program plan of agency ethics reviews scheduled by the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) for calendar year 1997. 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 15 or 23, 1997, please call Phyllis Hoffer on 202-208-8000, extension 1184, by January 8, 1997. Attendance is open to all agencies, whether or not the agency is scheduled for review in 1997. One item that we will be checking this year is to determine whether agencies have developed a written training plan for the current year and are implementing it. While it is no longer required that such training plans be sent to OGE, agencies are required to develop a written training plan annually. Training plans are to be completed by January 1 of the calendar year covered by the plan. 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, 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. 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. 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 _____________________________________________________________________ OFFICE OF GOVERNMENT ETHICS 1997 PROGRAM PLAN OF AGENCY REVIEWS PROGRAM REVIEW SCHEDULE JANUARY - MARCH 1997 1. Council of Economic Advisors 2. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 3. Corporation for National and Community Service 4. Offutt Air Force Base (Bellevue, NE) --Headquarters, U.S. Strategic Air Command --55th Air Wing 5. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission 6. Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board 7. Fort Bliss (El Paso, TX) --U.S. Army Air Defense Artillery Center and School --U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy --3rd Armored Calvary Regiment 8. International Boundary and Water Commission (El Paso, TX) 9. Presidio of Monterey, CA --Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center --U.S. Army Research Institute Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey CA 10. Naval Supply Systems Command 11. American Battle Monuments Commission 12. Department of Health and Human Services --Office of the Secretary --Health Resources Services Administration 13. Advisory Council on Historic Preservation _____________________________________________________________________ PROGRAM REVIEW SCHEDULE APRIL - JUNE 1997 1. Fort Leonard Wood (Jefferson City, MO) --U.S. Army Engineer Training School --1st Engineer Brigade --3rd Basic Training Brigade 2. National Security Council 3. Farm Credit Administration 4. Marine Corps Air Station, Camp Pendleton (Oceanside, CA) --Marine Corps Air Station --Marine Corps Logistics Base --Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton 5. Federal Labor Relations Authority 6. National Aeronautics and Space Administration --Headquarters, Washington, DC --Lewis Research Center (Cleveland, OH) --Langley Research Center (Hampton, VA) 7. National Capital Planning Commission 8. General Services Administration 9. National Science Foundation 10. U.S. Marshals Service (Justice) 11. Fort Sam Houston (San Antonio, TX) --U.S. Army Medical Command 12. Defense Logistics Agency Single Issue Review: 1. Review of alternative financial disclosure systems approved by OGE for departments and agencies under 5 C.F.R. § 2634.905(c) _____________________________________________________________________ PROGRAM REVIEW SCHEDULE JULY - SEPTEMBER 1997 1. Department of Energy 2. U.S. International Trade Commission 3. Langley Air Force Base --Headquarters, Air Combat Command --1st Fighter Wing --Air Force Doctrine Center 4. Food and Drug Administration 5. Elmendorf Air Force Base (Anchorage, AK) --Headquarters, Alaskan Air Command --Headquarters, 11th Air Force --3rd Wing 6. U.S. Army Materiel Command (Alexandria, VA) 7. Fort Lewis (Tacoma, WA) --Headquarters, I Corps --Madigan Army Medical Center 8. U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency 9. Lackland Air Force Base --U.S. Air Force Training Group --Headquarters, 37th Training Wing 10. U.S. Parole Commission (Justice) 11. Environmental Protection Agency 12. Marine Corps Base - Quantico, VA --Marine Corps Combat Development Command --Marine Corps Systems Command --Marine Corps Institute Single Issue Review: 1. Survey of ethics programs in federal regional offices and military installations _____________________________________________________________________ PROGRAM REVIEW SCHEDULE OCTOBER - DECEMBER 1997 1. Assassination Records Review Board 2. Overseas Private Investment Corporation 3. International Joint Commission 4. Federal Communications Commission 5. Merit Systems Protection Board 6. U.S. Naval Home (Gulfport, MS) 7. Federal Aviation Administration 8. Department of Commerce --Bureau of the Census --Economic Development Administration --International Trade Administration 9. Fort Campbell (KY) --101st Airborne Division --5th Special Forces Group (Airborne) --160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment 10. Department of Education 11. U.S. Marine Corps 12. Washington Navy Yard --Headquarters, Military Sealift Command 13. Naval Air Station, Alameda (Alameda, CA) --Naval Air Rework Facility --Naval Aviation Depot --Shore Intermediate Maintenance Activity