Investigation of Potential Post-Employment Ethics Violations

We initiated this investigation based on information submitted by the designated ethics official of the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI). The official reported that former DOI Assistant Secretary for Water and Science Anne Castle, now an employee of the nonprofit S.D. Bechtel Jr. Foundation, may have had communications with U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) employees that violated U.S.C. restrictions against former Federal employees contacting current employees and requesting that they take official action.

 

We found that less than a year after she left DOI, Castle emailed several DOI employees about the Foundation and participated in a conference call with DOI and Foundation employees. We also learned that a USGS hydrologist attended a meeting that Castle was participating in with non-Federal representatives from a regional water council, although Castle did not know that he would be present. 

 

It appeared that Castle’s emails violated the U.S.C. prohibition against former Federal officials contacting employees from their previous agency. Both Castle and a DOI deputy solicitor stated in their interviews, however, that they felt Castle had received unclear ethics advice from the DOI attorney advisor she consulted after she began working for the Foundation.