Ethics question -federal employee paying for contractor's lunch?
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Anonymous
| I have been googling this situation and haven't been able to find it. Since there are a few gov employees here including and especially lawyers maybe someone can answer this question. A colleague went on a site visit with the contractor and everyone decided to go to lunch at a restaurant near by. My colleague, a federal contracts specialist, decided to pay for lunch. He said that it was about $25, I don't think he is supposed to do that, mainly because of perception but I might be wrong. Can someone indulge me? |
Anonymous
| There are rules on what a fed employee can accept in terms of a meal, but I don't recall any rules on what he can provide (assuming he is not putting in an expense for it). |
Anonymous
| It's been a while since I worked with the gov't (I was on the contractor side), but I seem to remember that the "limit" to be able to spend on whatever is something crazy low - like $7. Enough for coffee and a danish, but that's it. I always had people apologizing because they couldn't buy me lunch unless we got a cheap sandwhich from the local deli. |
Anonymous
| How do members of Congress get away with all the gifts they receive? |
Anonymous
| Zero - at least at my firm. We do not even buy out client a cup of coffee. |
Anonymous
http://www.citizen.org/documents/Gift-Rules-for-Congress.pdf |
Anonymous
| Stupid rules , business is about relationships |
Anonymous
|
Did your friend pay with personal funds or government funds?
The ethics rules prohibit federal employees from accepting various gifts FROM contractors and other prohibited sources, not TO contractors and other prohibited sources. That being said, it is a misuse of funds to spend government money that way. www.oge.gov |
Anonymous
I agree. I think it would be ethically wrong if the contractor paid for the meal. |
Anonymous
| I'm reading from your question that your colleague is a federal government employee working as a contract specialist (ie not a federal contractor working as a contract specialist). In your case, a federal employee was purchasing a gift of food for a contractor. The normal "gift" rules that apply to federal government employees provides that an employee cannot receive more than $20/occasion or cumulative $50/year from a contractor. A gift can never be in exchange for an action or preferred treatment (quid pro quo) and shouldn't be accepted if it would create an appearance of favoritism. However, in your case the government employee isn't receiving from the contractor, rather the government employee is gifting to the contractor. No federal government ethics rules prevent this practice. The contractor would be responsible for following the corporate ethics rules or business practices of their employer which many restrict acceptance of gifts from clients or customers. |
Anonymous
| Man I am so glad I don't work in this field with these rules (though I understand the reasoning for them) I nearly always pick up the tab for others, it's not that I even want anything from them, it's just easier than splitting things. Especially in group situations when people start to study the tab a little too much. It's almost a stress relief on my part to just pay! In the end it's really not that much. |
Anonymous
|
The rules in place are more around receiving gifts from contractors than giving gifts to contractors.
I googled and found this: http://www.hanscom.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123122019 "Before giving gifts to contractor personnel, federal employees should clear it with the individual, who may have ethics rules he or she is required to follow." (I am using "gift" and "meal" interchangeably - same idea) |
Anonymous
| Feds while recruiting dh wined and dined him like a rock star. Go figure. |