Five Activities Contracting Officers and Government Contractors Should Avoid Presented by: James F. Moseley, Jr. of Moseley, Prichard, Parrish, Knight, & Jones

 Use common sense  If it feels wrong, it probably is wrong  Avoid the appearance of impropriety

 Conflict of Interests  Gifts  Procurement and other non-public information  Employment  Miscellaneous

 Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAC)  18 U.S.C. § et seq.  Conflict of Interest  Ethics  Bribery

 Financial Conflicts of Interest: Any professional work activity on behalf of the government that benefits a government employee financially.  Impartiality Issues: Any activity where Government employees’ fairness is questioned in relation to professional work on the government’s behalf.

 A gift is anything that has monetary value, food, travel, entertainment, discounts, and loans.  Government employees may not accept gifts from anyone who gives the gift because of their government position.  Items that may be excluded:  Modest food and refreshments;  Gifts valued at $20 or less per source not to exceed $50 per calendar year;  Gifts based on personal relationships;

 Meals, lodging, transportation or other benefits from spouse’s employer not given because of your Government job;  Gifts or discounts available to the general public, all Government employees, or all military personnel;  Free attendance at a conference if your agency determines that your attendance is in the agency’s best interest;  Anything paid for by the Government or secured by the Government under a contract.

 Contracting officers may not knowingly obtain or disclose contractor bid or proposal information before the award of the contract other than as permitted by law. Those items include:  Cost or pricing data  Info about manufacturing processes, operations, and techniques  Info marked as “contractor bid or proposal info”  Other info related to a specific procurement that a company making a bid deems proprietary.

 Contracting officers may not knowingly disclose source selection information, including:  Bid prices for sealed bids  Proposed costs or prices  Source selection plans  Technical evaluation plans  Technical, cost, or price evaluations of competing proposals  Competitive range determinations  Rankings of bids, proposals or competitors  Reports, evaluations and recommendations of source selection panels

 Government employees cannot work on Government matters that would affect the interests for a contractor with which they are seeking employment.  Government Procurement employees in contact with contractors for employment opportunities must report the contact in writing to supervisor and remove themselves from participating in any procurement activity with the contractor; and/or reject the possibility of non-Federal employment.

 Government employees may be banned from accepting compensation from a contractor for one year after serving in a covered procurement-related position or making a procurement-related decision. This applies to:  Procuring contracting officers  Source selections authorities  Members of a source selection evaluation board  Chief of financial or technical evaluation team  Program manager, and others or

 If the government employee personally made any of the following decisions:  Awarded a contract, subcontract, modification or task/delivery order over $10 million  Established overhead or other rates for a contract over $10 million  Approved a contract payment or payments of over $10 million or  Paid or settled a claim over $10 million

 Fundraising: Don’t do it! Soliciting charitable donations from contractors or their employees is considered asking for gifts from prohibited sources.  Letters of Recommendation (LOR): Contracting officers may provide a LOR on official agency letterhead; recommendation must be based on personal knowledge of the ability or character of the contractor employee with whom the CO has dealt with in the course of Federal employment.

 Outside Activities: Any “moonlighting” opportunities should be discussed with agency ethics officials prior to taking any action pursuing outside employment. Any outside activity has potential to present conflict that may disqualify Government employees from performing a significant amount of Government duties.

FAR Policy: The United States Government has adopted a zero tolerance policy regarding trafficking in persons. Additional information about trafficking in persons may be found at the website for the Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons’ at Government contracts shall— (a) Prohibit contractors, contractor employees, subcontractors, and subcontractor employees from— (1) Engaging in severe forms of trafficking in persons during the period of performance of the contract; (2) Procuring commercial sex acts during the period of performance of the contract; or (3) Using forced labor in the performance of the contract;

 (b) Require contractors and subcontractors to notify employees of the prohibited activities described in paragraph (a) of this section and the actions that may be taken against them for violations; and  (c) Impose suitable remedies, including termination, on contractors that fail to comply with the requirements of paragraphs (a) and (b) of this section.

 This means obtaining labor services of a person by:  Threats of serious harm of physical restraint against that person or another person  By means of a scheme plan or pattern intended to cause that person to believe that if the labor is not performed that person or another person would suffer serious harm  Means of abuse or threatened abuse of law or the legal the process Citation