TOPICS
TOPICS
Interior Department unveils new ethics plan
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne outlined a new ethics plan recently that would include more comprehensive training and standards for all department employees, including political appointees.
An Interior Department spokesman confirmed that Kempthorne had proposed a "10-Point Plan to Make the Department of the Interior a Model of an Ethical Workplace" in a June 27 memo to employees. The plan designates a senior-level agency ethics officer, whose responsibilities include reviewing and implementing ethics practices.
The agency also will expand the ethics briefings and training it requires for Senior Executive Service and presidential appointees, create a panel to ensure "fairness in the management of conduct" and impose harsher penalties for inappropriate Internet use by employees.
Kempthorne also expressed support for ending the "Indian lobbying loophole." Under current law, almost all senior federal officials who leave the government must wait one year before returning to their former place of employment as lobbyists. Those who leave to lobby for American Indian tribes are exempt from the cooling-off period, an exemption challenged by proposed Senate legislation. In the memo, Kempthorne supported the legislation, which was introduced in January by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
The ethics announcement came the day after J. Steven Griles, former deputy Interior secretary, received a 10-month prison sentence for his involvement in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal. An Interior spokesman said the memo was unrelated to the Griles case, but rather part of "Secretary Kempthorne's continuing commitment to ethical service."
Some watchdog groups said the plan won't do enough to prevent future breaches.
"I don't see how punishing improper Internet use addresses the problems of unethical political appointees," said Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.
Beth Daley, a spokeswoman for the Project on Government Oversight, recommended greater transparency, a call that Ruch echoed.
"Transparency in the ethics process helps keep people in line in a way that a government agency simply can't," Daley said. "Congress and journalists should be able to participate in holding Interior employees to high ethical standards."
Daley said additional training -- on top of the annual ethics training all department employees receive -- won't help.
"When there's a scandal, everyone's first response is 'more training'," she said. "Sometimes you also need to fire people. There's hasn't been enough of that at Interior."
Daley did commend Kempthorne for addressing the lobbying loophole. "Interior was the nexus of all the Abramoff issues," she said. "A lot of [the issues] rose out of that loophole."
According to the memo, Kempthorne appointed ethics lawyer Melinda Loftin as ethics officer, and suggested Mark Limbaugh as head of the Conduct Accountability Board. Limbaugh, who served as assistant secretary for water and science, has since announced he will leave the agency.
COMMENTS
- "Ethical Fed" hit the proverbial nail with his comments. I think it is irony to the max that DOI is unveiling a “new” ethics plan…when they could not even get the old one right! Talk about an oxymoron…DOI ethical plan! Until DOI management (across all 8 agencies and bureaus) are held accountable for unethical (again not OGE rules) behavior and actions, no amount of “new” ethics plans will cure what ails them. USGS does not follow it’s own or DOI IT security policies but they terminate the “ethical” federal employees that do. They also violate appropriation laws regarding Grant funding, but keep operating without consequences. It is such a parochial culture at that agency I believe it compromises the very science that our federal tax dollars are supporting. The agency leadership attends quarterly “retreats” at resort areas such as Lake Tahoe, Sana Barbara, Palm Springs, Monterey and Carmel. Is this “ethical” stewardship of customers and tax payers’ dollars?? I agree Ethical Fed, DOI needs a wholesale house-cleaning across the board!! Another Ethical Fed Posted July 10, 2007 6:37 PM
- Government Ethics is a misnomer. In government parlence ethics is a set of rules contained in the Code of Federal Regulations and implemented and monitored by the Office of Government Ethics-- it deals with Hatch Act rules, with gift rules, with post employment rules-- rules, rules, rules. To most people in the real world ethics is the internal compass that tells us it is wrong to lie, wrong to steal, wrong to retaliate against your employees, right to do a full days work for pay-- it is something we learn from our Parents, our community and our religions. You can be incredibly ethical and yet fall outside of the arbitrary rules established by OGE. You can also follow all these rules to the letter and be completely unethical in your dealings with employees, co-workers, customers, and employers. The problem with DoI isn't government OGE ethics-- the problem with DoI is weak and partisan management-- management that is out for number 1 at the expense of its stewardship. Just go ask Chief Chambers if you don't believe me. No amount of training and restructuring of Government Ethics can solve that problem-- only a wholesale House cleaning, or should I say Park cleaning, of party hacks. Ethical Fed Posted July 9, 2007 1:58 PM
- The problem with ethics rules is that money follows power, and when you concentrate power in one spot (i.e., Washington, DC) the money gets concentrated. All that money following all that power will find a way to get around whatever new rules are promulgated, no matter how stringent they seem at the outset. The way to beat corruption in DC is to push the power back down to the state capitals. Yes, you'll end up with corruption at the state level, but the money will have to split itself up into 51 different packets. Divide and conquer. Besides, when people begin to realize that they can effect state government much easier than they can the federal government, they'll turn their attention there and government of, by and for the people will return to the U.S.A. Robert Bragaw Posted July 9, 2007 12:22 PM
