August 29, 2016
OGE’s website now features a Presidential Transition page targeting the Presidential campaigns, the future Presidential Transition Team, incoming Presidential nominees, the media, and the public. OGE plays a vital role in Presidential transitions, reviewing the financial disclosure reports of Presidential nominees and resolving their conflicts of interest so they can serve with integrity. This nominee work becomes OGE’s primary focus during the transition, when most of the top political leadership in the government turns over. Based on OGE’s extensive experience with the nominee process, OGE has developed critical resources that will help to ensure that the transition is as smooth and effective as possible. These resources also increase transparency regarding the government’s complex Presidential nomination procedures.
One key resource available on the Presidential Transition page is a new Nominee Ethics Guide, which provides an overview of the Presidential nomination process and summarizes the basic information every nominee should know about the ethics portion of the process. The Guide introduces the ethics laws and regulations applicable in the executive branch, including those relating to conflicting financial interests, impartiality, gifts, and misuse of position, so that incoming officials can spot a potential problem and bring it to the attention of agency ethics officials. The Guide also encourages nominees to make ethics a priority at their agency and provides suggestions for creating an ethical culture.
In addition, the Guide and the accompanying Appendix provide practical advice regarding how to complete a public financial disclosure report beginning with instructions for logging into Integrity, the executive branch’s electronic filing system for public financial disclosure. The Guide also supplies a general list of the types of personal financial documents and information to include in the report. The Appendix supplements this list with a more detailed checklist of what to include in a report as well as checklists for nominees coming from specific employment situations like professors, attorneys, and corporate officers. The Appendix also provides more detailed information about ethics topics specifically related to financial disclosure. This Guide will serve as a useful roadmap and a practical reference document for nominees as they move through the nominee process and throughout their appointments.
Although OGE will issue this guide in hard copy to nominees, an electronic version is available on OGE’s website. Visit OGE’s Presidential Transition page on this website to view the Nominee Ethics Guide and Appendix, a separate ethics guide for the Presidential Transition Team, and a collection of other valuable resources.