Info for Ethics Officers

Ethics Officers...It's more than a title... it's a responsibility...

Ethics Officers provide a critical function in assisting the thousands of State officers and employees in navigating the State's ethics laws.  The Public Officers Law and the Commission's ethics regulations create legal obligations for both agencies and their officers and employees. For this reason, each agency should designate an Ethics Officer to provide guidance to these individuals on compliance with the ethics laws.

In addition, the Ethics Officer is responsible for ensuring that both the agency and its personnel comply with the legal obligations related to the following subjects:

• Requirements for Financial Disclosure Statement Filers (“FDS Filers”)

• Mandatory Ethics Training

• Approvals for Outside Activities

• Approvals for Honoraria

• Approvals for Official Activity Expense Payments

• Acceptance of Gifts (including Widely Attended Event)

The Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government is available as a resource to assist you in providing guidance to your agency on the ethics laws and regulations. We encourage you to contact us with questions or for confidential guidance on a specific matter.

Ethics training is a yearly requirement.  Ethics Training is required for every state employee including full-time, part-time, unpaid and per diem board members.  The training mandate expanded to include both Financial Disclosure (FDS) and non-FDS filers. Employees who are seasonal or temporary employees are also required to complete ethics training on an annual basis.  

• Comprehensive Ethics Training Course (CETC) -  A live ethics course that can be conducted either in-person or remotely using videoconferencing tools such as WebEx, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, etc.  The CETC must be live and not pre-recorded to allow participants the ability to answer questions in real time. 

• Online Ethics Refresher (OER) - A self-paced online training available for the majority of the state workforce via the Statewide Learning Managment System (SLMS) or your agencies learning management system. 

Ethics training is tracked for every state employee in the Commission’s Statewide Ethics Training Application (SETA). 

Ethics officers or their designess are required to submit monthly training statistics and enter training completion dates for the employees listed in your agency profile.  This also applies to agencies who track employees’ live Comprehensive Ethics Training (CETC) via the Statewide Learning Management System (SLMS).  

Updating your Agency Profile

In addition to submitting your monthly training statistics, you are also required to update the following information:

• Review and update any missing or inaccurate email addresses.
• Enter training completion dates for live CETC sessions conducted at your agency.  Employees who enroll and receive credit for attendance at a COELIG hosted live CETC session are automatically marked completed in SETA if the employee has a profile established in SETA.
• Enter training completion dates for the online ethics refresher – this only applies to agencies who do not utilize the Statewide Learning Management System (SLMS).  COELIG continues to update the ethics refresher monthly for employees with access to SLMS. 

Additional information and resources on tracking ethics training is available below.  

learn more

Agency Ethics Officers and trainers may request access to the COELIG Ethics Training SharePoint site to download our updated training materials.  Due to the file sizes of the materials, we are no longer able to post these materials on our website.

Request sharepoint access

**AGENCY-SPECIFIC TRAININGS ARE ON PAUSE**

Employees that need to complete live ethics training should enroll in an open CETC session.

Overview

An agency’s Ethics Officer is the primary liaison between the agency and the Commission. Each State agency must name an Ethics Officer. Other individuals may be involved with the Ethics Officer's duties, but one individual must have the primary responsibility for coordination with the Commission. Many State agencies have designated staff from either their Counsel’s Office or Human Resources department.

Duties of the Ethics Officer with regards to Financial Disclosure Statement Filers

The Ethics Officer, or his or her designee, is minimally responsible for: 

• Serving as the point person for communication with the Commission, including receipt of Commission notices, correspondence, opinions, determinations, policies, publications, newsletters and legislative information, and disseminating relevant information to FDS filers 
• Notifying new filers of their obligations to complete financial disclosure and ethics training requirements in a timely manner prior to adding them to COELIG's online FDS system 
• Creating and updating account profiles in a timely manner to reflect accurate filer information, including filer contact information, leave status, and salary information
• Assisting the Commission with financial disclosure compliance efforts by encouraging required filers to file on time and communicating with delinquent filers on the Commission's behalf 
• Informing agency staff that the Ethics Officer is the internal agency contact for Public Officers Law related questions, and advising staff of their obligations under the law and how to seek advice and guidance from supervisors, the Ethics Officer or the Commission 
• Ensuring the appropriate filings are submitted to the Commission 
• Attending Commission trainings to stay current and informed

For assistance on how to use the online FDS system contact the FDS helpdesk at: [email protected]

Video from Ethics Forum on January 13, 2022