Government Contracting and Ethics, Term Paper Example

Introduction

“On November 23, 2008 the Department of Defense (DOD) promulgated a new regulation requiring most federal contractors and sub-contractors to adopt and promote a code of business ethics. As part of the amended section 48 CFR Parts 2, 3 and 52 this rule requires contractors to present themselves with the highest degree of integrity and honesty.” (“Federal Contractors Code of Business Ethics and Conduct”).  All contractors should develop and present a written Code of Business Ethics and Conduct to promote compliance and have an Employee Training Program that is suitable to the size of the company that wishes to contract with the DOD.

Ethical Analysis

The situation involving unethical practices I have chosen is to determine, if any conflicts of interest were present in the report GAO-08-169 (march 11 2008) where ethics officials and senior leaders were intertwined with DOD federal and contractor employees. It was recommended there be a separate screening for financial disclosures as applicable to such actions pertaining to employment. Further DOD commented they have hired a subcommittee to review the integrity of all recommendations to ensure the highest integrity is related to all transactions between the federal government and contract personnel. This is recommended and most employers are introducing this on a voluntary basis rather than a mandate to safeguard integrity and police anticipated violations of ethics. “There are specific exemplary clauses in force to protect the federal government by introducing these clauses for prohibiting contract employees form personal procurement in affecting a personal financial interest in any transaction.” (“Defense Contracting”). These are not standard contract clauses that have been put in place to protect the federal government Department of Defense from any unethical behaviors as such.

Contributing Factors

“Most government officials found current requirements in the contracts were too inadequate to prevent conflicts of interest between the federal government and the contracting employer.” (“Defense Contracting”). Financial decisions were severely impaired because of these certain conflicts of interest giving rise to the public believing there was frivolous theft and misappropriation of funding going on. Ethics committee feel there are innate risks associated with employing outside companies and with that said, there should be extra precautions taken such as exemplary and contract exclusion clauses added to prevent such conflicts of interest that weigh down on the federal governments public eye.

Recommended Corrective Action

GAO recommends the personal conflict of interest policy be taken so severely it should be as strong as any contract that binds any government official within its own boundaries. What this means is the government should treat such contracts as strong as it would set its own policies from within and not be relaxed because they are contracting with an outside vendor. They should actually take more precaution because they are dealing with a vendor that is not a federal government entity. The subcommittee should oversee all contracts and have a formal attorney oversee all transactions and contracts to see that they meet the standards of ethics as should be mandated not just by a court of law but as best be suited by the public eye. The public scrutiny is what the federal government needs to be concerned with when dealing with outside vendors for the public can be the government’s worst nightmare if they feel the government is not dealing in ethical manners. The government should act and deal accordingly to a certain mission statement and the mission statement should be written and dictated as it were given in a court of law. The federal government is mandated to act higher than a civil mandate because they are the government and they set an example for civilians. What this essentially means is if the government cannot or will not contract in an ethical manner how can we expect others to do so? They must lead by example, they must “facilitate all work in compliance with the government laws and policies, they must ensure corrective measures are promptly instituted and carried out and they must establish a mechanism by which a suspected unethical behavior can be reported.” (“Federal Contractors Code of Business Ethics and Conduct”).

These internal controls are there in place to prevent improper “conduct in connection with the award of performance of government contracts or sub-contracts. Contractors or sub-contractors must further notify contracting officers without delay whenever they become aware of any and all violations of Federal Criminal law with regard to such contracts. This proposed rule covers some of the same areas requested by DOJ. However, several aspects of the DOJ request go beyond that proposed rule. The Councils propose to modify Clause 52.203—XX, Contractor Code of Ethics and Business Conduct, which was proposed under FAR case 2006-007, to more closely match the U.S. Sentencing Commission Guidelines Manual, Section 8B2.1.” (“Federal Contractors Code of Business Ethics and Conduct”).

References

Defense Contracting Additional Personal Conflict of Interest Safeguards Needed for Certain DOD Contractor Employees Retrieved July 10, 2010 from, http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d08169high.pdf

Federal Contractors Code of Business Ethics and Conduct Retrieved July 10, 2010 from, http://corporatecompliance.org/staticcontent/NewRulesFederalContractors.pdf