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A Series of Unfortunate Ethical Lapses
 By Tom Shoop | Monday, May 14, 2007  |  11:26 AM

Today's Wall Street Journal tells the story of Stephen Epstein, director of the Defense Department's Standards of Conduct Office. Epstein's claim to fame is that he's the author of the Encyclopedia of Ethical Failures, which the paper characterizes as "a hit parade he publishes on the Internet to regale bureaucrats with tales of shenanigans and shockingly bad judgment that have shot down the careers of fellow public servants across government." The examples, which come from agencies across the federal bureaucracy, involve everything from misuse of government resources to time and attendance violations. A sampling of titles of entries from the latest edition of the encyclopedia, which runs to 133 pages:


  • Watch Promoting Your Business on Government Time!

  • One Happy Family Spends Time Together in Jail

  • Stealing Isn’t the Only Way to Misuse a Government Issued Credit Card

  • To Defraud or Not To Defraud? That’s an Easy Question!

  • Fantasy Football IS Gambling

  • Like a Private Helicopter Ride to Work? How About a Model Ship?

  • Stopping at the Base Eatery Not an “Official Visit”

  • Using Government Vehicle to “Chill” Earns Down Time By Suspension



Comments


Should be required reading for every Federal Employee.

Anonymous  | Tuesday, May 15, 2007 |  07:42 AM


Pehaps if the managers and their managers and their managers ect. were doing their jobs, this encyclopedia would be little more than a pamphlet.

Robert M.  | Tuesday, May 15, 2007 |  06:09 AM


These stories should be included in every federal agencies weekly meetings! When I first started in Civil Service, we were all trained about ethics violations and informed of the consequences. We took the training seriously and many of us are better guardians of the public trust we represent. Sadly, our ethics "training" has been reduced to a boring 1 hour Powerpoint presentation that anyone can skip through and ignore. With the huge turnover in the government due to the baby boomers retiring; effective ethics training should be a critical requirement.

18 year federal worker  | Monday, May 14, 2007 |  04:19 PM



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Government Executive Editor Tom Shoop takes a look at news and events affecting the federal bureaucracy, from the perspective of a longtime observer of government.

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