(a) Designated Agency Ethics Official refers to the official designated under 5 CFR 2638.201 to coordinate and manage the Department's ethics program.

(b) The head of each bureau is the “Ethics Counselor” for that bureau, except that the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy is the Ethics Counselor for employees in the Office of the Secretary and related offices. The Solicitor is the Ethics Counselor for the Office of the Solicitor and the Inspector General is the Ethics Counselor for the Office of Inspector General.

(c) The personnel officer for each bureau or other qualified employee who has been delegated responsibility for the operational duties of the Ethics Counselor for the bureau, it the “Deputy Ethics Counselor” for that bureau.

(d) A bureau, regional, or area personnel officer or other qualified employee may be assigned to serve as an “Associate Ethics Counselor” or “Assistant Ethics Counselor,” with delegated responsibility to perform the operational duties of the Ethics Counselor at the field level. Associate Ethics Counselors or Assistant Ethics Counselors may also be designated within the bureau headquarters.

(a) The Designated Agency Ethics Official (or the alternate agency ethics official in his or her absence) shall coordinate and manage the department's ethics program in accordance with 5 CFR 2638.203.

(b) Each Ethics Counselor shall, for his or her bureau:

(1) Order disciplinary or remedial action in accordance with the provisions of subpart F of this part. This authority may not be redelegated.

(2) Designate: (i) The Bureau Personnel Officer (or other qualified headquarters employee) as Deputy Ethics Counselor to carry out operational duties of the Ethics Counselor within their bureaus under the general direction of the Ethics Counselor; and

(ii) Headquarters bureau, regional, or area personnel officers (or other qualified employees) as Associate Ethics Counselors or Assistant Ethics Counselors to perform ethics counseling and the collection and review of financial disclosure reports.

(3) Ensure that vacancy announcements for positions which require a public or confidential financial disclosure report alert applicants to the filing requirement.

(4) Establish and maintain internal procedures and guidelines to adequately and systematically inform employees of the content, meaning, and importance of ethical conduct and other conduct regulations.

(c) All supervisors may make decisions as to whether conduct by employees under their supervision would result in the appearance that the employee would violate or is violating the ethical standards set forth in 5 CFR 2635; all supervisors are expected, therefore, to be familiar with those standards. In addition, any supervisor who grants prior approval of an employee's outside employment under 5 CFR 3501.105(b) is expected, at a minimum, to provide information to the employee about the prohibitions in 18 U.S.C. 203, 205 and 208 at the time such approval is granted.

In an instance involving the proposed employment of a special Government employee for highly specialized and limited duties, the head of the bureau or office may propose to the Designated Agency Ethics Official (DAEO) a reporting of financial interests restricted to such interests as may be determined to be relevant to the duties the special Government employee is to perform. The DAEO may, under the provisions of 5 CFR 2634.905, exclude the special Government employee from all or a portion of the confidential reporting requirements of the OGE Form 450. Any confidential financial disclosure requirement must be satisfied by the special Government employee before he begins his employment.