DEC/EC Meeting Notes -- Monday, January 10, 2011
11:00 – 11:30am*Bldg. 31C, conference room 6

 *NOTE:  This meeting will be only 30 minutes.  DEC/EC Meeting attendees are invited to the first seminar of the 2011 DDM Special Topic Series, featuring David Cade.  Mr. Cade will be providing background on the role of OGC in HHS and discussing some areas of interest.   The DDM seminar will be held in Bldg 31C, conference room 10 from 11:30am-1:00pm.

Introductions:

1. New NEO Specialist Assignments
2. New NEO Staff

Items for Discussion/Presentations:

278 Pre-clearance process when Acting employee is a current 450 filer

1. Prior to the date the employee is appointed to the acting position, use the most current 450 report to pre-clear the acting employee.  To do so, request that the employee either: 

1) confirm no changes in assets, income, liabilities, gifts and outside positions reported on previously filed 450; or

2) supply updated information. 

• Remind employees of what is a reportable change, e.g., purchases of stocks, (new SAOs?  get an updated 717-1), and what is not, e.g., purchases of diversified mutual funds.
• Updated information can be given in an e-mail.

 Once the employee is in the 278 position, take the following steps:

• Determine whether it is expected that the employee will remain in the position for more than 60 days.  Note:  a national search for a permanent employee will take more than 60 days to complete; ask IC Executive Officer the status of the search. 
• If the appointment is expected to be greater than 60 days,  notify the employee that a 278 report is due within 30 days.
• If the appointment is expected to be less than 60 days, monitor the length of the appointment, and if it exceeds 60 days, get a 278 report from the acting official within 15 days of the 60th day (before 75 days after appointment).

 Also, get termination report from incumbent vacating the position within 30 day of his/her termination date. 

 2.    Update filing status in EMIS:  

Reminder:  keep the filing status of an employee current in NEES and EMIS.  Soon after a new entrant report is filed, change the employee’s status to incumbent so that he or she will be timely notified to file an annual report.

 3.    205 issues with certain outside activities        

18 USC Section 205 prohibits federal employees from representing another back to the Government.  This prohibition may become an issue when an employee is engaged in an outside activity.  For example, an NIH employee may run afoul of this prohibition if, acting on behalf of an outside organization, he or she asks another government employee to undertake an official duty action for the organization, i.e., to speak in his or her official capacity to the organization. 

To avoid such a violation, a non-federal representative of the organization should approach the NIHer to give the official duty speech.  The NIH employee who is engaged in the outside activity (perhaps as program chair for the organization’s annual meeting) may suggest names of NIH officials to his colleagues at the organization, but he or she should not approach the NIH official with respect to the official duty speech. 

An NIH employee may approach another employee on his or her own time to join him or her in the outside activity, perhaps as a co-editor of a journal, to run for office of a professional society, or to write a chapter for a textbook.  This is permissible because there is no representation to the Government because the requested activity (editing, office holding, or writing) will be conducted as an outside activity by the solicited employee.  Occasionally, what is first conceived as an outside activity, ultimately is performed as an official duty activity.  Out of an abundance of caution, it is recommended, therefore, that all contact to an NIH employee be made through a non-federal representative until it is settled (i.e., the 520 is approved) that the solicited employee will engage in the activity in his or her personal capacity.

Announcements:

1.   Annual 2802 filing due to Kim Cuozzo

2.   Program reviews, either whole or specific actions, available.  Contact Genia Bohrer

2.   Annual Ethics Questionnaires are due to Kim Cuozzo, with a cc to Genia Bohrer, not later than January 10.

3.   NEES Update:

• NEES will send email notice to OGE-450 filers on January 14th, but not to those filers who submitted their 2011 OGE-450 Annual report before January 14. 
• Training on NEES Update:  Register for the CIT-sponsored training on the recent updates to NEES. The process has several screens, until you get to the "Registration Confirmed" screen.  Course covers recent changes to financial disclosure and outside activity screens.
• http://training.cit.nih.gov/coursedescription.aspx?courseID=CS0000000001297

4.   EMIS Update

• HR comparison and data download being examined and revised to improve accuracy.
• Verify New Employees function has changed. Decision to add or delete from list is now made after viewing the employee information. Click on employee name to open the record. The Add and Delete buttons are at the bottom.  If you will add that employee, first Click on "Get NIH ID" and then add the employee with an ID number.
• Use 99 as the pay plan for non-FTEs.  This will permit easy identification of non-FTE records.
• New requirements on the employee data record: 1) NIH ID is required and duplicate IDs are not permitted. 2) SSN is required and duplicate SSNs are not permitted. 3)   The employee record must have either an SSN (for FTEs) or the pay plan must be 99 (for non-FTEs).
• It is important to transfer the record when an employee transfers.  The new IC will not be able to add a duplicate record.  If you try to add an employee record and get the duplicate number message (either ID or SSN), send a note to Felecia Taylor and Fran Plyler, who will find the matching record and help resolve the issue.
• Users can no longer delete an employee record.  When you choose delete, you will insert a reason for deletion at the bottom of the screen.  Upon submission, a note goes to the EMIS Administrator to finish the deletion.
• EMIS Administrators now have ability to reactivate a deleted employee record. Send your request to Felecia Taylor and Fran Plyler.
• "Pre-clearance" was added as another option in the Action Type drop-down list in the Other Action form.
• Ethics Agreement form was added.  It is not on the list for ad hoc reports yet. 
• New instructions are being written, to be posted on the EMIS Help page. Notice will be sent.

 5.  CY ’09 278s should have been certified by 12/17.  If you did not meet that deadline, you should be in contact with Genia.  Additionally, all certified 278s and corresponding 520s should have been sent to Elton – if they have not been, please send them by the end this week.

Posted February 8, 2011