STANDARDS OF CONDUCT

1
STANDARDS OF CONDUCT

• DS PERESHCUCK

2
Motivator

• As soldiers, you are guardians of the public
  trust. Your loyalty to bear true faith and
  allegiance is to the Constitution of the United
  States of America, as well as to the Army, your
  unit, and other soldiers. You must obey the laws
  of the land and adhere to the highest standards
  of ethical conduct.

3
Lead-in

• Public service is a public trust. This means
  that as public employees, you must place loyalty
  to the Constitution, the laws, and ethical
  principles above any desire for private gain.
  You must perform your job and act in such a way
  as to convince the public at large that you are
  working towards the public good and not your own
  good. As military members, you are federal
  employees, subject to the standards of conduct
  rules applicable to all federal employees. Army
  personnel must comply with the standards of
  conduct rules implemented in the Department of
  Defense Joint Ethics Regulation (JER), a
  regulation that applies to all the services.

4
Gifts from outside sources

• Army personnel may not solicit a gift or accept
  a gift from an outside source if the gift is (1)
  from a prohibited source or (2) given because
  of your official position with the Army. This
  standard makes it clear the rules regarding gifts
  are very different for Army personnel than they
  are for civilians in the US business world.
  Giving gifts to customers is a common practice in
  the business world it is, however, generally
  prohibited for an Army employee to accept a
  job-related gift. It is also important to know
  that gifts given to your parent, spouse, or child
  are considered gifts under these rules.

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Gifts from outside sources

• The rules define a gift as anything having value,
  so a gift can be just about anything.
• A prohibited source is any person, business,
  or organization that does business with the Army
  who can gain or lose by actions you take on the
  job. This also can be someone who seeks to do
  business with the Army or seeks some official
  action by the Army, such as a government
  contractor.

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When May You Accept Gifts From Outside Sources

• The biggest exception is the donut rule. This
  allows employees to accept small amounts of food
  or refreshment from an outside source. For
  example, if you are representing the Army by
  participating in a community parade and a company
  that does business with the Army provides
  refreshments afterwards, you may accept it
  because it is offered to everyone who
  participated and it is of little value.

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When May You Accept Gifts From Outside Sources

• You also may accept greeting cards, plaques, or a
  favorable discount if it is offered to the public
  or to all members of the Department of Defense.
  The rules allow an employee to accept any gift
  which is worth less than 20 (such as a mug or a
  paperweight), and you may accept several gifts
  worth less than 20 in a year from the same
  source as long as the total of all the gifts is
  not more than 50. Additionally, you may accept
  a gift if it is given to you because of a
  personal relationship with the giver. You may
  always pay market value for a gift.

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When May You Accept Gifts From Outside Sources

• Gifts from foreign governments or their
  representatives are governed by special rules.
  Army personnel may accept a gift from a
  representative of a foreign government if the
  gift is of minimal value. Minimal value
  changes every three years, so personnel should
  consult their SJA. Gifts over minimal value must
  be shipped or reported to DA, PERSCOM.

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Gifts Between Employees

• The first category is gifts given on holidays and
  birthdays. These gifts may not exceed 10.
• The second category of gifts is gifts between
  employees given when the senior/subordinate
  relationship ends, such as retirement, transfer,
  or a permanent change of station. Gifts on
  these ocasions generally may not be more than
  300 per donating group. The same person may not
  be a member of (i.e. donate to) more than one
  donating group.

10
Gifts Between Employees

• Soldiers may not be required or pressured to
  donate money to buy a gift for a superior who,
  for example, is sick, being reassigned, or
  retiring. However, it is OK for someone to ask
  you to make a small contribution, such as 10,
  for a gift to a departing superior, as long as it
  is made clear you are free to contribute less or
  nothing at all. It is also OK for someone to
  distribute an announcement of a party for a
  superior who is leaving and include a small
  amount for a departure gift in the fee for the
  party.

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Gifts Between Employees

• A superior never may solicit a subordinate for
  the superiors own gift. Also, it is never
  appropriate to coerce, force, intimidate, or
  otherwise improperly pressure a subordinate into
  giving a gift to a superior. Remember, when
  soliciting a subordinate to contribute to another
  superiors gift, a superior may not ask for more
  than 10. Soldiers always should know their
  donation is strictly voluntary.

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Gifts Between Employees

• Also, you as a soldier may not be forced to
  collect money for a gift. The collection is a
  totally voluntary, unofficial undertaking.

13
Gifts From Official Travel

• Often when Army personnel fly on official
  business, employees will register their travel
  with their airlines frequent flyer program. Any
  frequent flyer benefits or miles gained from
  official travel are government property. An
  example of official travel would include you
  leaving basic training and going to another
  military installation at the governments
  expense. Personal use of those miles is a crime.

14
Gifts From Official Travel

• If your government travel includes personal
  travelssuch as during leave or passthe miles
  attributable to the personal travel are
  considered your property. You are required,
  however, to keep strict records of which miles
  are personal and which are official. If you
  choose not to keep a record, all the miles belong
  to the government.

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Gifts From Official Travel

• Once the miles are turned in to the government,
  soldiers may use government frequent flyer miles
  only for two purposes to offset the cost of
  future official travel and to upgrade to premium
  class on an official flight

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Gifts From Official Travel

• As a soldier, you may accept an upgrade at no
  cost to the government if the upgrade is not
  offered because of your official position.
• The free upgrade may even be to first class,
  unless you are in uniform. Soldiers may never
  fly first-class in uniform.

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Gifts From Official Travel

• Army personnel also often receive benefits during
  official travel when a flight is full and
  passengers are being bumped from the flight.
• Often, airlines offer free tickets to persons who
  are bumped from a flight. If you are bumped
  involuntarily, then the free ticket is government
  property.
• If, however, you volunteer to be bumped, then the
  free ticket is your personal property. This can
  occur only if you have the leeway during travel
  to delay the travel, and the time spent in a
  delayed status is considered leave or pass time.

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Gifts From Official Travel

• Army employees may not misuse their military
  position for private gain. As a soldier, you
  must be familiar with the conflict of interest
  provisions of the JER. Although you may not be
  faced with a conflict of interest in the near
  future, understanding conflict of interest
  restrictions will prepare you to do the right
  thing if you ever are faced with one of these
  situations.

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Conflict of Interest

• Generally, a conflict of interest is a situation
  where an employee is acting in an official matter
  but the employee somehow is going to be affected
  personally by his or her official action.
• The prime example involves a conflicting
  financial interestwhere an employee who holds
  stock in a corporation is participating in an
  Army contract action with that same company.
• An example of a non-financial conflict of
  interest is when an Army employee, who is a
  manager in a local private organization, takes
  some official action regarding that organization,
  such as approving a request for use of a
  government building for a meeting.

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Conflict of Interest

• Each case involves an improper conflict of
  interest because the employees personal interest
  is going to be affected by the employees
  official action. The conflict of interest rules
  also state that the financial interests of an
  employees spouse, including the spouses
  employer, are considered to be the employees
  financial interests.

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Conflict of Interest

• It is also illegal and a conflict with an
  employees official duties for an employee to
  receive compensation, other than the employees
  government pay, for the performance of official
  duties. Additionally, employees may not receive
  compensation for teaching, speaking, and writing
  which relates to the employees official duties.
  

22
Solicitation Prohibitions

• These prohibitions do not apply, however, to
  non-business sales of personal property or real
  property (a home or land) or to sales that occur
  off-duty in an established retail business. For
  example, your supervisor may sell his or her
  house to you without violation of the ethics
  rules.

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Solicitation Prohibitions

• These rules would prohibit a squad leader or
  supervisor who sells a product or service in
  his/her off-duty time from soliciting a
  subordinate to purchase the product or service.
  For example, if your supervisor works for a mass
  marketing organization, he or she may not
  approach you on or off duty to buy any of the
  company products. Doing this would violate the
  Army core values of selfless service, loyalty,
  integrity, duty and honor. However, the rules
  would not prohibit the squad leader or supervisor
  who works at a local eating establishment from
  selling a meal to the subordinate.

24
Employment Prohibitions

• Army employees may not engage in any outside
  employment that conflicts with the performance of
  their official duties. For example, you may not
  work a 12-hour day with the Army and work another
  8 hours on a part-time job. This could hinder
  you from performing up to standards on your
  military job and, depending on your MOS, may
  cause grave danger to the mission. Any outside
  employment must be approved by your immediate
  supervisor.

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Employment Prohibitions

• Additionally, ethics rules prohibit Army
  employees from acting in an official matter if
  that matter involves a company that the employee
  is seeking to work for.
• Finally, Army personnel who work in the
  contracting field have very specific limitations
  on post-government employment. Post-government
  employment matters should be referred to the
  Staff Judge Advocate (SJA) for resolution.

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Prohibited Use of Government Resources

• An example is a local card and flower fund, a
  local soldiers organization, or just about any
  organization with the word Association in it.
  These prohibitions are consistent with the
  principle that public service is a public trust.
• The rules regarding use of property also stem
  from the basic rule that federal employees must
  protect and conserve Federal property and shall
  not use it for other than authorized purposes.
  Consistent with this rule is the principle that
  federal employees shall disclose waste, fraud,
  abuse, and corruption they are aware of.
  Violating the Joint Ethics Regulation and rules
  not only makes your personal integrity suspect,
  but is also illegal.

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Prohibited Use of Government Resources

• These prohibitions do not apply only to support
  for non-federal entities but also to improper use
  for personal purposes. It may be just as
  improper to use a copier or government telephone
  for your own personal use as it would be to use a
  copier or government telephone for the business
  of a private organization you belong to or want
  to support.

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Prohibited Use of Government Resources

• Government property and personnel should be used
  only for government purposes. For example, it
  would be wrong for you to type a personal letter
  on a Government computer or take pens and paper
  bought by the Army for your personal use. It
  also would be wrong to use a government telephone
  to make a personal long-distance call, unless you
  use your calling card to pay for it.

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Prohibited Use of Government Resources

• In addition to using government property only for
  official purposes, Army employees may not use
  official, nonpublic government information for
  their own personal purposes. This means you may
  not use nonpublic information, classified or not,
  for your personal financial gain or any personal
  gain.

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Prohibited Use of Government Resources

• Also, the Privacy Act, which carries criminal
  penalties, prohibits the dissemination of someone
  elses personal information, such as their social
  security number, address, or home phone number,
  without his or her permission or unless
  authorized by the Privacy Act.

31
Authorized Use of Government Resources

• Generally, the use may not be adverse to the
  Armys interests, such as accessing internet
  pornography on a government computer system.
  Incidentally, the ethics rules state that by
  using government computers and telephones for
  personal, authorized purposes, individuals
  consent to government monitoring of those
  systems, including internet sites accessed and
  information downloaded.

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Authorized Use of Government Resources

• Personal, authorized use may not be at any
  additional cost to the government. In the
  absence of a command policy regarding personal
  use, a commissioned officer that is a supervisor
  (or a GS-11 civilian employee supervisor) may
  approve the personal use of government resources
  for a subordinate. For instance, you may be
  authorized to use the computer to complete
  homework or use the internet to conduct research
  for off-post courses however, this must first be
  approved. In addition, this use must not
  interfere with your military obligation.

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Proper Use of Government Time

• Standards of Conduct rules also address the
  proper use of government time--both an employees
  own time and that of the employees subordinates.
  For example, a supervisor may not require
  subordinates to help paint his or her house
  during duty hours or give them time off from work
  for compensation. Again, official time should be
  spent on official government business. Army
  personnel shall put forth an honest effort in
  the performance of their duties. Supervisors
  also have a duty to safeguard their subordinates
  time. An Army employee may not direct, coerce,
  or otherwise force a subordinate to use official
  time for unofficial or unauthorized activities.
  This is a criminal prohibition

34
Official Support

• Army personnel in their official capacities may
  not endorse a non-federal entity or its
  fundraising activities. There are a few
  exceptions, however, including endorsement of the
  Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) and the Army
  Emergency Relief (AER). Army personnel may
  endorse these organizations and their fundraising
  efforts but may never coerce or direct a
  subordinate to give to the organizations.

35
Official Support

• Commanders may provide information to service
  members through official channels about private
  organizations that may be beneficial to soldiers
  and their families. It is important to remember,
  however, that the Army may never selectively
  benefit one organization over another that is
  similarly situated. If support is provided to
  one group, it should be provided to another
  similar group. Also, official support may never
  detract from readiness.

36
Official Support

• As a soldier, it is improper for anyone to
  require or pressure you to join the enlisted club
  or any private organization. However, it is OK
  for someone, even a superior, to tell you about
  the benefits of joining a club or private
  organization, as long as he or she makes it clear
  that you are free to join or not join as you
  desire, and that you will not be punished if you
  choose not to join.

37
Personal Relationship/Support

• Army personnel have a personal capacity and an
  official capacity. Personnel act in their
  official capacity when they perform acts in the
  performance of their official duties. Even if
  not actually performing official duties,
  personnel could appear to be acting in their
  official capacity, such as when wearing the
  uniform. It is important to distinguish personal
  and official capacities when engaging in
  activities related to private organizations.

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Personal Relationship/Support

• Army personnel may join, manage, or otherwise
  participate in private organizations as long as
  it does not conflict with the performance of
  official duties.
• For example, a soldier who is a president of a
  local organization may not act on a request from
  that organization to use a unit day room. A
  conflict of interest exists between the soldiers
  personal activities and official duties.
  Soldiers may endorse a private organization in
  their personal capacity. The rules allow
  soldiers to use their rank and service (SFC John
  Smith, US Army) in an endorsement, but not the
  soldiers official title.

39
Personal Support

• Army personnel may assist voluntarily and
  participate in private organizations, including
  the fundraising efforts of private organizations.
  Fundraising must be voluntary and unofficial.
  Soldiers may not use their official title or
  represent the Army while fundraising.
  Fundraising usually does not occur in uniform.
  Fundraising may not occur on the Army
  installation without permission of the
  installation commander, usually through the
  Director of Personnel and Community Activities.
  Some fundraising, such as raffles and bingo, may
  be strictly regulated. Remember, when in doubt,
  always check with your supervisor or the ethics
  counselor.

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Prohibited Gambling

• Gambling in the military is, in most cases, a
  criminal activity. Criminal laws prohibit
  gambling on any federal property, whether it is
  leased or owned by the federal government. It is
  also a crime to gamble with a subordinate,
  whether or not it is on federal property.

41
Prohibited Gambling

• The rules allow limited private wagers among
  friends in quarters if the local state law allows
  such wagers. These private wagers may never be
  with a subordinate.
• Limited gambling may be allowed at installation
  clubs, for example, when a Monte Carlo Night or
  a Casino Night is approved by the command.

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SCENARIO 1 TIME TO GIVE

• Your supervisor called a shop meeting and
  informed everyone that he thought it would be a
  good idea if the shop got together to give a gift
  for the commanders retirement. He also informed
  the shop personnel that he already had selected
  the gift, which cost 350, and that each person
  was required to give 15 to cover the cost.

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SCENARIO 2 The Pushy Salesman

• You and a friend of yours from BCT are going
  through AIT together. You know from
  conversations during BCT that Gary is a real
  hustler when it comes to making money on the
  side. He was always talking about different ways
  he had made money in the past. Some sounded
  neat others were a little more suspect.

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SCENARIO 2 The Pushy Salesman

• One day during lunch, Gary told you about his
  latest money-making project. He told you that
  your squad leader had heard about his gift of
  money and asked if he'd like to make some extra
  money selling long-distance service at a
  discount. Gary told you that he has already
  signed up half the platoon on behalf on the squad
  leader and wants to cut you in on the action. He
  said all you have to do is sell the plan to the
  soldiers in the other platoons and you'd get a
  cut of their long-distance spending. You think
  this sounds like a good idea, especially since it
  will save soldiers a lot of money on their calls
  home. However, you're not sure whether you can
  sell products to your fellow soldiers.