Ethics Corner

This series on ethics presents cautionary examples drawn from the DoD Standards of Conduct Office Encyclopedia of Ethical Failures.

If you have questions about ethics or are unsure about a certain course of conduct, contact the NASCC Staff Judge Advocate’s office by calling 361-961-3535.

Today’s story is about the perils of “keeping it all in the family.”

A former programs director for the General Services Administration (GSA) admitted to using his position at U.S. Army Garrison Fort Monmouth in New Jersey to award payments from the government to himself and his family members.

The former employee did this by awarding projects to two contractors who in turn hired the employee’s personal business enterprise and his daughter as subcontractors.

Over the course of three years, the former employee, his personal businesses and his daughter received over $800,000 in fees through contracts awarded from the government.

But the catch was that neither the employee’s personal business nor his daughter actually performed any services for the government at all.

Aside from the obvious fraud to which the former employee, his wife, and his daughter pled guilty, federal law also prohibits federal employees from making decisions concerning matters in which they or their family members have a personal financial interest.

Even if the former GSA employee and his daughter had actually rendered the services that they billed for, the former employee would still have been in violation of federal law by awarding the projects to the contractors in the first place because his own financial interests were involved.

The former GSA employee and his family were ordered to pay over $800,000 in restitution, and they each received prison sentences ranging from 12 months to 46 months.