Field Offices' Integrity Program (PDF), Audit No. 395

FIELD OFFICES’ INTEGRITY PROGRAM EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Office of Inspector General (Office) evaluated the Commission’s integrity programs (i.e., ethics and staff conduct) in four of five regional offices and four of six district offices. Successes, obstacles, recommendations, and effectiveness ratings related to the Commission’s integrity objectives were obtained through twelve workshops involving approximately 150 Commission employees. The opinions and observations of the staff were not validated through tests or compared to other data. Composite ratings by the participating professional staff indicate that all supporting objectives are generally being implemented, although some obstacles are impairing full implementation. We believe that, taken as a whole, the Commission field offices are achieving the Commission's primary objective to promote high individual and agency integrity. As in prior evaluations, the participants indicated that they felt a personal sense of responsibility for maintaining the integrity of the Commission. Most of the participants also indicated that they felt a strong sense of an ethical tradition at the Commission and that employees live up to the Commission’s integrity expectations. Workshop participants overwhelmingly reported that integrity is a high priority at, and an integral value of, the Commission. The participants in the workshops expressed a desire for better communication of policies from management, ...