Ethics Advisory 97-01--Financial Interests Date: Tue, 22 Jul 1997 14:23:50 To: "USGS Employees" From: "Virginia G. Miles" Subject: Ethics Advisory 97-01--Financial Interests Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" July 22, 1997 MEMORANDUM To: All Employees, U.S. Geological Survey From: Deputy Bureau Ethics Counselor Office of Personnel Subject: Ethics Advisory 97-01--Financial Interests All U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) employees are reminded that they have certain ethical responsibilities as Federal and USGS employees with respect to financial interests, outside work and activities, travel reimbursements from outside sources, service as a professional society officer, acceptance of gifts or entertainment from foreign or domestic sources, royalties from publications, non-official expression, nepotism, post-employment restrictions, and similar topics. The Ethics Program Office plans to issue all-employee Ethics Advisories via E-mail during the year covering these issues. This Advisory covers FINANCIAL INTERESTS. All USGS employees are prohibited from holding any financial interests in publicly traded companies that hold extensive acreages of oil/gas/mining leases in Federal or Public lands. In addition, employees of the Office of the Director and the Geologic Division may not own more than a total of $5,000 worth of securities issued by companies that are subject to the USGS Policy, which restricts interests in companies engaged in oil/gas/mining activities, operating on private lands in the United States. Personnel of all other organizational units are limited to $5,000/company and no more than $15,000 total in these and other companies subject to the limitation. In June of each year a new Financial Guide is prepared that lists many of the companies subject to these prohibitions. The current Financial Guide #17, dated June 30, 1997, is available for your use on the USGS Office of Program Support/Human Resources homepage at http://www.usgs.gov:8888/ops/hro/ethics/finance.html location. To ensure that you are not holding prohibited financial interests, you should review this guide against your current holdings. A number of companies meeting the minimum requirements for inclusion have been added since the 1996 guide was issued. It should also be checked when purchasing new securities to determine whether they may be prohibited. Some prohibited companies may not primarily engage in the oil/gas/mining business but nevertheless have holdings that place them on the prohibited or restricted list. If upon review of the Financial Guide, you believe that you may hold absolutely prohibited or restricted assets, you should immediately contact the Deputy Bureau Ethics Counselor to discuss divestiture of the asset in order to preserve your rights to appeal the divestiture of the asset or to obtain temporary Federal tax relief through a Certificate of Divestiture from the Office of Government Ethics because certain time limits apply. Advice and guidance concerning all financial interests, including securities, mineral rights, mineral royalties, mining claims, pooled income funds, land holdings, annuities, trusts, grazing rights on Public Lands and related matters, can be obtained from the Deputy Bureau Ethics Counselor, Virginia G. Miles, at phone: 703/648-7474; E-mail: vmiles@usgs.gov; or regular mail: USGS, Mail Stop 603, National Center, Reston, Virginia 20192. If you need a printed copy of Financial Guide #17, you may request a paper copy by providing your mailing address by return E-mail to the Ethics Counselor. An electronic copy of the document may also be requested if you are able to receive WordPerfect attachments through your E-mail system. Thanks Virginia G. Miles E-Mail Address: vmiles@usgs.gov Phone #: 703/648-7474 FAX #: 703/648-4132 Mailing Address: U.S. Geological Survey National Center, MS 603 12201 Sunrise Valley Drive Reston, VA 20192