The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was passed in 2002 and it focused on "financial transparency" for private-sector corporations.
It resulted in annual "classes" down to the lowest salaried employee (who were automatically classified as management). In the class we were reminded that we could not accept so much as a single pen, hats, tee-shirt, slice of pizza, coupon for fifty-cents off of a hotdog or any other gifts from outside suppliers.
Of course the problem wasn't the Maintenance Supervisor wearing an Allen-Bradley baseball cap or carrying a FANUC logo-ed ballpoint pen in his pocket.. The problem were the engineers and buyers who were flown to elite golf courses and put up in posh hotels by suppliers so they could "do business" while puttering on the links. Congress saw that as unreported income that needed to be taxed.
Those prohibitions also extended to my immediate family and if there was ANY possibility of a conflict-of-interest, I needed to approach my management and apply for a waiver. Failure to do so was grounds for termination.
The sauce
The sauce that is good for the goose is also good for the gander.
Why aren't all public sector employees vulnerable to termination for conflict-of-interest?
"Why aren't all public sector employees vulnerable to termination?"
ReplyDeleteFixed it for you
In theory they are... In practice they aren't until it gets egregious - usually too public to ignore.
ReplyDeleteI know of federal employees who have gone to prison for this, and others who haven't.
Jonathan
P.S. There are supposed to be "reasonable limits" to what you can accept, not a blanket prohibition. One guideline says $50 per year and $20 per occasion from a Prohibited Source.
Us low-level critters are subject to such restrictions even when having no power to influence anything. The higher up the food chain, the more avenues to circumvent such are available. Anyone see a CEO in a mandatory HR training class? Sitting in a 40-hour ethics class? I once held three shares of a Fortune500 company in a retirement acct which got me in trouble when working for a competing company (conflict of interest) yet my manager at the time had founders stock in a company in which 25% of his dept budget went to support. RHIP
ReplyDeleteIt used to be standard practice in many offices. It worked as long as they had the decency to stay bribed when they had taken a little sweetener.
ReplyDeleteIt does seem to be a gap, ERJ.
ReplyDeleteAs a warm body on the hanger deck at CGAS Chicago in the early 90s the Commandant of the Coast Guard came for an inspection and a talk.
ReplyDeleteHe said as employees of the federal government the standard we needed to uphold was to avoid the "appearance of impropriety".
The "appearance" of impropriety... ya, even then I could see there were (at least) two sets of rules.
US Navy folks who came for contract meetings never accepted a cup of coffee from us. Boeing and EPA folks did because the coffee was free to everyone. Spooks alway came with their own coffee but brought donuts for us. DOD auditor never accepted anything but flirted so bad with our office manager that she was never left alone with him.
ReplyDeleteI once dated a lady who worked for a big company that made medical things like heart valves and pain pumps and other appliances that surgeons put inside people. They would court doctors with lavish dinners, expensive wine Etc..
ReplyDeleteAmen, Roger
ReplyDeleteHumans are self centered. Thus people in positions to make rules will invariably exempt themselves from those rules.
ReplyDeleteTHAT is a question many of us have been asking for years!!! Sigh...
ReplyDeleteBut ... but ... that is why the public sector is paid more than private and their pensions are both higher and guaranteed, because they don't have the "perks" that the private sector enjoys. Other than cruelly having to negotiate with private sector suppliers in exotic locations and missing out on time with their families, which is considered cruel and unusual punishment, being away from their desks, their natural and usual habitat is Washington DC.
ReplyDeleteYes, the internet needs a sarcasm font.
Phil B
Sarcasm is difficult...
ReplyDelete