government ethics

What ethics questions do federal employees ask most frequently? [The Federal Drive]

Federal ethics offices across executive branch agencies field thousands of questions annually, with gift acceptance, outside employment, and personal financial interests representing the top three categories of concern. According to Intelliworx’s analysis of the Office of Government Ethics’ latest survey data, financial conflicts dominate federal employee inquiries as government workers navigate complex situations where external parties seek to influence decisions affecting billions in taxpayer dollars. On a recent appearance on The Federal Drive with Terry Gerton, John Martin, Business Analyst with Intelliworx, explains that while most federal employees act with good intentions, daily work pressures can obscure potential conflicts until problems emerge, making proactive identification essential. Digital transformation has revolutionized federal ethics compliance through automated disclosure systems that significantly improve reporting accuracy while reducing administrative burden. Intelliworx supports financial disclosure automation for dozens of federal agencies, providing technology that pre-populates recurring information, flags discrepancies between reporting periods, and maintains searchable […]

Mitigating conflicts: The top government ethics issues where employees seek guidance

Survey data from 143 executive branches informs government ethics shops as to where they should invest time to educate civil servants and political appointees on financial disclosure requirements Financial disclosure is an unenviable, but necessary, annual task for certain government employees. Broadly speaking, those who are in a position to influence how taxpayer money is spent are required to disclose any potential conflicts of interest in their personal holdings. As a company, we do a considerable amount of work in this area. Nearly 40 federal agencies have relied on Intelliworx to modernize, customize, and streamline their financial disclosure process. We provide enabling technology that helps ethics offices document, mitigate, track, and report on those disclosures. Although the process of financial disclosure is typically managed by any given agency’s ethics office, the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) strives to keep tabs at a high-level. As part of this work, executive branch […]

11 ways FDonline simplifies financial disclosure requirements for federal agencies

Nearly 40 ethics offices in the federal government use FDonline to make it easier for civil servants to file and for compliance professionals to certify those disclosures and mitigate potential conflicts of interest by Intelliworx Financial disclosure isn’t the most glamorous part of a government job, but it’s incredibly important for transparency. The federal government manages an incredibly large budget – $6.75 trillion in 2024 – and all of it, including borrowing, belongs to the taxpayers. The temptation to influence spending decisions for personal gain is a rare but consequential event. When it does happen, the damage to public trust is difficult to repair, so the government has policies in place to avoid such conflicts of interest. One such policy is the requirement for government employees in a position to influence spending decisions to disclose their personal financial holdings annually. Those holdings are reviewed by their agencies ethics offices for […]

SaaS case study: How the Department of Veteran Affairs modernized financial disclosure

The VA capitalized on the success of a small IT project focused on solving a specific technical problem preventing 150 SGEs from filing financial disclosure forms – and used it to modernize the entire process for 13,000 filers and 5,000 supervisors enterprise-wide The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) sometimes employs outside experts. This category of personnel is known as Special Government Employees (SGEs). They are usually employed for 130 days or less and work on specific projects that require their specialized knowledge. SGEs usually maintain outside connections during their special employment – and for good reason. Many put their full-time jobs on hold until a given VA project is complete. Because they maintain these connections, they are required to comply with stringent ethics rules, such as financial disclosure. Any federal employee, including SGEs, who has influence over budget decisions is required to disclose personal financial holdings. These assets are reviewed […]

Modernizing financial disclosure through digital transformation strengthens ethical integrity and trust in government

Modernizing financial disclosure through digital transformation strengthens trust in government (Federal News Network)

Government ethics reviewers are drowning in paper when it comes to financial disclosure, and it’s costing taxpayers. Paper and no-frills digital forms make filing disclosures on time difficult for busy officials. For ethics teams, manually reviewing massive volumes of forms leads to missed details and struggles to meet deadlines. Moving ethics financial disclosure to modern, secure, cloud-based, best-in-breed technology is more than a solid organizational and time-saving idea. Embracing these technologies is essential to preventing future ethical breaches and safeguarding public trust. Read the full post here: Financial disclosure is a deserving target for the government’s digital transformation (Federal News Network)

10 government ethics best practices for conflict review and financial disclosure

These tips can help government ethics offices streamline the processes for ensuring financial disclosure filings are complete, accurate, and on time Every government worker who is in a position to make final decisions or take actions that “will have a direct and substantial economic effect on the interests of any non-federal entity” is required to fill out an annual financial disclosure form. The purpose is simple – to eliminate any conflict of interest – or even the appearance of a potential conflict of interest. Yet not every ethics office navigates the financial disclosure season in the same way. We’ve seen it firsthand working with nearly 40 different government agencies, in recent years, to assist with more than a half million financial disclosure forms. Our experience in this area has given us a good view of which processes work well – and which ones need improvement. Below are a handful of […]

7 financial disclosure tools government ethics shops need to streamline conflict review

Agencies review tens of thousands of financial disclosure forms from civil servants every year, here’s how 39 agencies have made things easier for their ethics offices by Intelliworx Every year ethics offices around the government face a time crunch during the financial disclosure period. That’s when lawyers and compliance officials sort through tens of thousands of disclosure forms submitted by civil servants looking for conflicts of interest. While only the most senior government employees are typically required to do this, it still amounts to hundreds of thousands of forms. In the last six years, Intelliworx has helped 39 government ethics offices process more than half a million financial disclosure forms. Why are we involved? We built a software platform that not only digitizes financial disclosure forms (including OGE-450 and OGE-278) but also digitizes the entire process – from data collection to review and approval. That makes it easier for civil […]