Official Duty Participation in Outside Organizations
CDC and ATSDR employees may be authorized to participate in outside organizations as part of their official duties in the following capacities:
- Federal Liaison
- Voluntary Consensus Standards Organization Member
- Advisory Committee or Editorial Board Member
- Officer, Director, or Trustee (Waiver Required)
This participation must be approved in advance by memo to Carlton Duncan, Deputy Ethics Counselor. It should specify in which capacity the employee will be serving, and include the following:
- a description of the organization for whom the service will be performed,
- a discussion of the relationship of the outside organization with CDC and why the organization merits allocation of official duty resources of CDC (e.g., relationship/advancement of our public health mission),
- a description of the role/duties the employee will perform,
- the time period covered, and the amount of time that will be devoted to such service, including frequency and length of meetings, and
- a statement that the employee will not be paid for the service (but will receive reimbursement for travel expenses, if such is the case).
If the service to the outside organization will present any conflicts of interest with other official duties, these should be disclosed in the request (here, we would be looking for such things as how the program will handle situations where the outside organization seeks CDC funds and the CDC employee has influence or decision making authority over the CDC grant or cooperative agreement programs, or situations where the employee's impartiality may be called into question, etc.).
If the request is to serve as an officer, director or trustee of an outside organization, the employee should provide a detailed description of the kinds of business conducted or deliberated by the officer, director, or trustee, and state why a liaison role will not suffice.
Because service as an officer, director or trustee of an outside organization violates the conflict of interest statute, 18 U.S.C., § 208, which prohibits any federal employee from participating in an official matter that affects the financial interest of an outside organization in which the individual serves as an officer, director or trustee, a request for a conflict of interest waiver to the Director, CDC must also be submitted.
Requests should be forwarded through organizational channels to Teresa Walker-Mason, Ethics Program Activity, Mailstop D27.
Page last modified: March 28, 2007