Federal Employees Free to Serve in Professional Societies | The ...

Jessica P. Johnson

Wildlife professionals mingle at The Wildlife Society?s 2012 annual conference. TWS and other professional societies rely on diverse leadership involvement from federal, state, and private sectors. (Credit: Ben Wasserman/TWS)

Beginning April 5, 2013, federal employees will once again have the opportunity to serve as officers, directors, or trustees of nonprofit organizations without fear of violating a federal criminal statute. A new amendment to the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) marks the end of a 15-year effort by The Wildlife Society and other professional societies to reverse a roadblock to professional development and collaboration.

?Federal agencies are an important source of highly-qualified volunteers to serve in leadership positions, and agency assistance with travel costs certainly helps with budgetary bottom lines,? said Wini Kessler, TWS President. ?Government employee participation is vitally important for The Wildlife Society and other non-profit societies.?

The CFR amendment (5 CFR 2640) changes the interpretation of statute 18 U.S.C. 208(a), which prohibits federal employees from serving in leadership positions with organizations where that service may result in a conflict of interest with their federal employer. In 1996, the Department of Justice interpreted the statute to mean that federal employees couldn?t participate in any official capacity for nonprofit organizations, even when a conflict of interest did not exist. Under the statute, waivers for participation could and were issued, but the waiver process was not standardized across agencies. Some agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, issued waivers freely. Others, such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture, denied waivers in most cases, and some failed to alert their employees at all that serving on nonprofit boards could result in criminal prosecution.

TWS and dozens of scientific societies have battled for the amendment since 1998, meeting with the Office of Government Ethics (OGE), the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and the Office of Personnel Management. The latter two agencies recognized that the statute?s restrictions made it difficult for the federal government to retain talented scientists by denying those scientists opportunities for career development through leadership roles in professional societies. In turn, societies faced a shortage of representation from the federal sector.

The battle was won on March 6, when the OGE issued a final rule that amends how the statute is interpreted. Under this amendment, federal employees may serve nonprofit organizations because OGE determined that the possibility of a conflict of interest between the employee?s loyalty to the government and any fiduciary duties to the organization is remote. The amendment eliminates waivers because regulations are already in place that allow federal employers to approve an employee?s participation in nonprofit organizations ahead of time and to require employees to document, limit, or end their service to nonprofit organizations if conflicts of interest do arise.

TWS Executive Director Ken Williams said that this is one step in the right direction toward reversing a disturbing trend ? a growing separation between the wildlife research and management communities. ?The entire conservation community is strengthened by a vital and diverse professional society,? said Williams. ?This rule change was badly needed.?

Source: http://news.wildlife.org/featured/federal-employees-free-to-serve-in-professional-societies/

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