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<div class="teaser" style="margin: 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px;
color: rgb(40, 40, 40); font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;
font-size: 12.800000190734863px; font-style: normal; font-variant:
normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height:
15.199999809265137px; orphans: auto; text-align: start;
text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal;
widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">It's been a LONG time in coming,
but it is now final and official: federally employed scientists
can now serve on the boards of ornithological and other scientific
societies without fear of going to the pokey!</div>
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(40, 40, 40);
font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size:
12.800000190734863px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;
font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height:
15.199999809265137px; orphans: auto; text-align: start;
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-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><em style="font-style: italic;
color: rgb(40, 40, 40); font-family: helvetica, arial,
sans-serif; line-height: 20px;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 0,
0);"></span><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><br>
</span></em></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(40, 40, 40);
font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size:
12.800000190734863px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;
font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height:
15.199999809265137px; orphans: auto; text-align: start;
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widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;
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<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(40, 40, 40);
font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size:
12.800000190734863px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;
font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height:
15.199999809265137px; orphans: auto; text-align: start;
text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal;
widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">The Office of Government Ethics
(OGE) today (7 March 2013) published a notice in the Federal
Register announcing a major change in the implementation of a
federal criminal statute that prohibits federal employees from
serving on the boards of outside organizations. That statute was
interpreted in 1996 by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to prohibit
an employee from serving, in an official capacity, as an officer,
director or trustee of a private nonprofit organization, even in
the absence of an actual conflict of interest. Following the
issuance of that statement by DOJ, federal agencies instituted a
variety of practices. Some, such as the National Institutes of
Health, recognized that the agency benefitted from the active
participation of its researchers in the larger scientific
community and the recognition of those scientists by their
scientific societies. These agencies freely issued waivers. Other
agencies – perhaps wanting to avoid having to determine if and
when waivers would be appropriate – refused to issue waivers. Some
agencies provided no guidance to employees and so many federally
employed scientists were unaware of the prohibition and the
potential for prosecution. Even in agencies that eventually made
efforts to inform employees and then established a waiver process
were slow to process waiver requests.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(40, 40, 40);
font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size:
12.800000190734863px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;
font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height:
15.199999809265137px; orphans: auto; text-align: start;
text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal;
widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(40, 40, 40);
font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size:
12.800000190734863px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;
font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height:
15.199999809265137px; orphans: auto; text-align: start;
text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal;
widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">By 1998, the Ornithological
Council (OC) and The Wildlife Society (TWS) began to hear from
scientists employed by federal agencies that they had been told
that they could not serve on the boards of their scientific
societies and that they were being discouraged from applying for
waivers. Joined by the Society of American Foresters and later by
the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the
American Statistical Association, the Society for Conservation
Biology, and dozens of other scientific societies, OC and TWS met
numerous times with the Office of Government Ethics and later the
White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the
Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Both OSTP and OPM recognized
that these restrictions could make it more difficult to attract
and retain the best scientists to federal service. During this
time, OGE, having recognized the problems and concerns that arose
from this policy, recommended to the President and Congress that
the statute be amended ``to specify that the financial interests
of an organization are not imputed to an employee who serves as
an officer or director of such organization in his or her
official capacity.'' In a 2006 Report, OGE recognized that it had
``regulatory authority to exempt financial interests arising from
official service on boards of directors,'' but OGE chose at that
time to place the issue before Congress first. No legislative
changes to the statute were enacted in response to the report.
The OGE continued to receive expressions of concern about this
matter, both from agencies and from nonprofit organizations.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(40, 40, 40);
font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size:
12.800000190734863px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;
font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height:
15.199999809265137px; orphans: auto; text-align: start;
text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal;
widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(40, 40, 40);
font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size:
12.800000190734863px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;
font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height:
15.199999809265137px; orphans: auto; text-align: start;
text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal;
widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">A 2009 memorandum from President
Obama to the heads of executive departments and agencies on the
topic of scientific integrity spurred a resolution. The President
specifically requested that OSTP provide recommendations to
address, among other things, the retention of staff in scientific
and technical positions within the executive branch. In response,
the Director of OSTP issued a memorandum urging all agencies to
establish policies that promote and facilitate the professional
development of Government scientists and engineers. The resulting
OSTP memorandum specifically called for policies to ``allow full
participation in professional or scholarly societies, committees,
task forces and other specialized bodies of professional
societies, including removing barriers for serving as officers or
on governing boards of such societies.''</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(40, 40, 40);
font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size:
12.800000190734863px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;
font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height:
15.199999809265137px; orphans: auto; text-align: start;
text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal;
widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(40, 40, 40);
font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size:
12.800000190734863px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;
font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height:
15.199999809265137px; orphans: auto; text-align: start;
text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal;
widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">The new policy announced today
reflects OGE’s determination that it was appropriate to exercise
its authority exempt the imputed financial interests of nonprofit
organizations in which employees serve as officers, directors or
trustees in their official capacity. Specifically, OGE found that
such financial interests are too remote or inconsequential to
affect the integrity of employees' services, for several reasons.
As explained in OGE's 2006 Report: ``OGE believes that the
conflict identified by OLC [between the employee's duty of
loyalty to the Government and the employee's fiduciary duties to
the outside organization] may be more theoretical than real,
particularly because employees assigned to serve on outside
boards remain subject to important Federal controls, such as the
authority to review and approve (or deny) the official activity
in the first place, and the authority to order the individual to
limit the activity, or even resign the position, in the event of
a true conflict with Federal interests. In addition, an agency
generally approves such activities only where the organization's
interests are in consonance with the agency's own interests. In
an era when `public/private partnerships' are promoted as a
positive way for Government to achieve its objectives more
efficiently, ethics officials find it difficult to explain and
justify to agency employees why a waiver is required for official
board services that have been determined by the agency to be
proper.'' In short, the potential for a real conflict of interest
is too remote or inconsequential to affect the integrity of an
employee's services under these circumstances.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(40, 40, 40);
font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size:
12.800000190734863px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;
font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height:
15.199999809265137px; orphans: auto; text-align: start;
text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal;
widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(40, 40, 40);
font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size:
12.800000190734863px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;
font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height:
15.199999809265137px; orphans: auto; text-align: start;
text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal;
widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">Agencies will, of course, have
valid management reasons to restrict the extent of an employee’s
participation on the boards of outside organizations. This is
particularly true in an era of declining federal budgets and
reduced staffing levels. Further, as OGE notes, employees must
still adhere to the agency conflict-of-interest policies. Further,
there will likely be limits on participation in lobbying,
fundraising, regulatory, investigational, or representational
activities, as determined by the agency.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(40, 40, 40);
font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size:
12.800000190734863px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;
font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height:
15.199999809265137px; orphans: auto; text-align: start;
text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal;
widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(40, 40, 40);
font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size:
12.800000190734863px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;
font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height:
15.199999809265137px; orphans: auto; text-align: start;
text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal;
widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">The Ornithological Council
strongly urges all ornithologists who wish to serve on the boards
of ornithological or other scientific societies to contact their
agency ethics officers and to submit a written statement that they
have reviewed the agency ethics policies and will abide by those
policies. </p>
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(40, 40, 40);
font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size:
12.800000190734863px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;
font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height:
15.199999809265137px; orphans: auto; text-align: start;
text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal;
widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(40, 40, 40);
font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size:
12.800000190734863px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;
font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height:
15.199999809265137px; orphans: auto; text-align: start;
text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal;
widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">The full Federal Register notice
can be found here: <span style="font-size: 14px;"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2013-03-06/html/2013-05243.htm">http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2013-03-06/html/2013-05243.htm</a></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(40, 40, 40);
font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size:
12.800000190734863px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;
font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height:
15.199999809265137px; orphans: auto; text-align: start;
text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal;
widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">or
here: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2013-03-06/pdf/2013-05243.pdf">http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2013-03-06/pdf/2013-05243.pdf</a></p>
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