Complete Home & Office Legal Guide/Complete Home and Office Legal Guide (Chestnut) (1993).ISO/stat/fed/cfr2635c.asc

Text File | 1993-08-01 | 27KB | 563 lines

    (5)    Cost provided by sponsor of event. The cost of the
employee's attendance will not be considered to be provided by
the sponsor where a person other than the sponsor designates the
employee to be invited and bears the cost of the employee's
attendance through a contribution or other payment intended to
facilitate that employee's attendance. Payment of dues or a
similar assessment to a sponsoring organization does not
constitute a payment intended to facilitate a particular
employee's attendance.

    (6)    Accompanying spouse. When others in attendance will
generally be accompanied by spouses, the agency designee may
authorize an employee to accept a sponsor's invitation to an
accompanying spouse to participate in all or a portion of the
event at which the employee's free attendance is permitted under
paragraph (g)(1) or (2) of this section. The authorization
required by this paragraph may be provided orally or in writing.

    Example 1: An aerospace industry association that is a
prohibited source sponsors a seminar for which it charges a fee
of $100. An Air Force contractor pays $500 to the association so
that the association can extend free invitations to five Air
Force officials designated by the contractor.  The Air Force
officials may not accept the gifts of free attendance. Because
the contractor specified the invitees and bore the cost of their
attendance, the gift of free attendance is considered to be
provided by the company and not by the sponsoring association.
Had the contractor paid $500 to the association in order that it
might invite any five Federal employees, an Air Force official to
whom the sponsoring association extended one of the five
invitations could attend if his participation were determined to
be in the interest of the agency.

    Example 2: An employee of the Department of the Treasury

authorized to participate in a panel discussion of economic
issues as part of a one-day conference may accept the sponsor's
waiver of the conference fee. Under the separate authority of
2635.204(a), he may accept a token of appreciation for his speech
having a market value of $20 or less.

    Example 3: An Assistant U.S. Attorney is invited to
attend a luncheon meeting of a local bar association to hear a
distinguished judge lecture on cross-examining expert witnesses.
Although members of the bar association are assessed a $15 fee
for the meeting, the Assistant U.S.  Attorney may accept the bar
association's offer to attend for free, even without a
determination of agency interest. The gift can be accepted under
the $20 de minimis exception at 2635.204(a).

    Example 4: An employee of the Department of the Interior
authorized to speak on the first day of a four-day conference on
endangered species may accept the sponsor's waiver of the
conference fee for the first day of the conference. If the
conference is widely attended, he may be authorized, based on a
determination that his attendance is in the agency's interest, to
accept the sponsor's offer to waive the attendance fee for the
remainder of the conference.

    (h)    Social invitations from persons other than prohibited
sources.  An employee may accept food, refreshments and
entertainment, not including travel or lodgings, at a social
event attended by several persons where:

    (1)    The invitation is from a person who is not a
prohibited source; and

    (2)    No fee is charged to any person in attendance.

    Example 1: Along with several other Government officials
and a number of individuals from the private sector, the
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency has been
invited to the premier showing of a new adventure movie about
industrial espionage. The producer is paying all costs of the
showing. The Administrator may accept the invitation since the
producer is not a prohibited source and no attendance fee is
being charged to anyone who has been invited.

    Example 2: An employee of the White House Press Office
has been invited to a cocktail party given by a noted Washington
hostess who is not a prohibited source. The employee may attend
even though he has only recently been introduced to the hostess
and suspects that he may have been invited because of his
official position.
    (i)    Meals, refreshments and entertainment in foreign
areas. An employee assigned to duty in, or on official travel to,
a foreign area as defined in 41 CFR 301 - 7.3(c) may accept food,
refreshments or entertainment in the course of a breakfast,
luncheon, dinner or other meeting or event provided:

    (1)    The market value in the foreign area of the food,
refreshments or entertainment provided at the meeting or event,
as converted to U.S.  dollars, does not exceed the per diem rate
for the foreign area specified in the U.S. Department of State's
Maximum Per Diem Allowances for Foreign Areas, Per Diem
Supplement Section 925 to the Standardized Regulations (GC,FA)
available from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government
Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402;

    (2)    There is participation in the meeting or event by
non-U.S.  citizens or by representatives of foreign governments
or other foreign entities;

    (3)    Attendance at the meeting or event is part of the
employee's official duties to obtain information, disseminate
information, promote the export of U.S. goods and services,
represent the United States or otherwise further programs or
operations of the agency or the U.S. mission in the foreign area;
and

    (4)    The gift of meals, refreshments or entertainment is
from a person other than a foreign government as defined in 5
U.S.C. 7342(a)(2).

    Example 1: A number of local businessmen in a developing
country are anxious for a U.S. company to locate a manufacturing
facility in their province. An official of the Overseas Private
Investment Corporation may accompany the visiting vice president
of the U.S. company to a dinner meeting hosted by the businessmen
at a province restaurant where the market value of the food and
refreshments does not exceed the per diem rate for that country.


    (j)    Gifts to the President or Vice President. Because of
considerations relating to the conduct of their offices,
including those of protocol and etiquette, the President or the
Vice President may accept any gift on his own behalf or on behalf
of any family member, provided that such acceptance does not
violate 2635.202(c) (1) or (2), 18 U.S.C. 201(b) or 201(c)(3), or
the Constitution of the United States.

    (k)    Gifts authorized by supplemental agency regulation. An
employee may accept any gift the acceptance of which is
specifically authorized by a supplemental agency regulation.

    (l)    Gifts accepted under specific statutory authority. The
prohibitions on acceptance of gifts from outside sources
contained in this subpart do not apply to any item, receipt of
which is specifically authorized by statute. Gifts which may be
received by an employee under the authority of specific statutes
include, but are not limited to:

    (1)    Free attendance, course or meeting materials,
transportation, lodgings, food and refreshments or reimbursements
therefor incident to training or meetings when accepted by the
employee under the authority of 5 U.S.C. 4111 from an
organization with tax-exempt status under 26 U.S.C.  501(c)(3) or
from a person to whom the prohibitions in 18 U.S.C. 209 do not
apply. The employee's acceptance must be approved by the agency
in accordance with 410.701 through 410.706 of this title; or

    Note: 26 U.S.C. 501(c)(3) is authority for tax-exempt
treatment of a limited class of nonprofit organizations,
including those organized and operated for charitable, religious
or educational purposes. Many nonprofit organizations are not
exempt from taxation under this section.

    (2)    Gifts from a foreign government or international or
multinational organization, or its representative, when accepted
by the employee under the authority of