We investigated a complaint received from officials at another Federal Government agency (hereinafter referred to as the agency) concerning alleged actions taken by a National Park Service (NPS) ethics counselor. The NPS ethics counselor allegedly used his official title to represent a family member before agency officials regarding a negative performance review that the family member received and regarding her use of sick leave. The NPS ethics counselor allegedly falsely represented to the agency that his family member needed to use sick leave to assist him at times when he was actually working and may have submitted false medical documentation to the agency to support his family member’s use of sick leave.
We found that the NPS ethics counselor violated Federal regulations by using his official title when communicating with agency officials. We also found that the NPS ethics counselor did not obtain approval, as required, to represent his family member to the Federal Government. The NPS ethics counselor admitted that when communicating with agency officials, he used his official title with the intent to influence them to act in his family member’s favor.
We did not find that the NPS ethics counselor presented false medical documentation to the agency on behalf of his family member. We also did not find sufficient evidence that the NPS ethics counselor intentionally misrepresented information to the agency related to his family member’s use of sick leave.
We provided this report to the Acting NPS Director for any action deemed appropriate.