1. Each department shall require full disclosure by employees to the office of the department head through the Ethics Liaison Officer upon receipt of a gift or any other thing of value related in any way to the State officer or employee's or special State officer or employee's public duties.

2. Each department should designate an Ethics Liaison Officer to monitor compliance with specific procedures under which officers and employees shall proceed upon receipt of a gift or any other thing of value related in any way to their public duties.

3. All officers and employees should be instructed that any gift or other thing of value offered to or by an officer or employee that is related in any way to his/her public duties must be reported and remitted immediately to the Ethics Liaison Officer. Similarly, any favor, service, employment or offer of employment from such person or corporation must be reported immediately.

4. The Ethics Liaison Officer shall return a gift or thing of value that is related in any way to an officer or employee's public duties to the donor or shall otherwise appropriately dispose of it.

5. Unsolicited gifts or benefits of trivial or nominal value, such as complimentary articles offered to the public in general, and gifts received as a result of mass advertising mailings to the general business public may be retained by the recipient or the recipient's department for general use if such use does not create an impression of a conflict of interest or a violation of the public trust. An impression of a conflict may be created, for example, if an employee of a regulatory agency uses a pocket calendar conspicuously marked with the name of a company that it regulates or if an office in a State agency displays a wall calendar from a vendor, creating the impression of an endorsement.

6. The Ethics Liaison Officer will have the responsibility of keeping the records of all such occurrences; names of the employees, individuals, and companies involved, and the final disposition of the gift or thing of value.

7. The assistance of the Director of the State Ethics Commission will be available to all Ethics Liaison Officers to aid them in individual cases.

Revised March 1990
May 25, 2006
September2006
AppendixA.doc