ETHICS IN GOVERNMENT ACT OF 1978
Passed in 1978 in the shadow of the WATERGATE scandal, the Ethics in Government Act affects many different aspects of federal government
employment. Its most famous provision was the
Independent Counsel Law, which gave impetus
to very public investigations of officials in three
presidential administrations and resulted in the
IMPEACHMENT trial of President BILL CLINTON
in 1999. That provision has since been allowed
to lapse, but many other provisions of the act
remained valid through 2003.
When Congress first debated the Ethics and
Government Act in the late 1970s, it seemed as if
the nation had been through a long nightmare
of ethics scandals, with Watergate being only the
most prominent and devastating. The purpose
of the act was to increase public confidence in
the level of integrity of federal government offi-
cials, to deter conflicts of interest from arising,
and to stop unethical person from entering pub-
lic service.Generally, the act made provisions for
the authority and functions of the Office of
Government Ethics, and set up administrative
provisions, rules and regulations, and appropri-
ations to enforce federal government ethics. It
became law in 1978.
Conflict of Interest Provisions Conflict of
interest was one of the chief areas dealt with by
the Ethics in Government Act. The act sets forth
financial disclosure requirements for federal
personnel. (5 USCA Appx 4 § 101 et seq). The
applicable provisions detail which persons are
required to file financial reports, the informa-
tion which must be provided in the reports, the
requirements for filing the reports, and custody
of, and public access to, the reports. Civil action
and civil liability provisions allow actions to be
brought for the failure to file the reports
required or for the filing of false reports.
The act also sets up the Office of Govern-
ment Ethics with a directory appointed by the
president, with consent of the Senate for a term
of five years. (5 U.S.C.A. App. 4 § 401). The
director provides, in consultation with the
Office of Personnel Management, the overall
direction of EXECUTIVE BRANCH policies related
to preventing conflicts of interest on the part of
officers and employees of any executive agency.
Upon the request of the director, each executive
agency is obliged to make its services, personnel,
and facilities available to the director to the
