The Postal Service is reminding employees that federal ethics regulations generally prohibit them from accepting gifts from anyone outside the organization, but there are exceptions regarding free attendance at certain events.
A Postal Service employee may attend an event for free if the gift of free attendance is offered by the event’s sponsor — and the employee has been assigned to present information on behalf of USPS or is accompanying another employee making a presentation.
If the event takes place over multiple days, an employee may accept free attendance only on the date when officially speaking at the event. The Postal Service may use its agency gift acceptance authority to accept free attendance on the days that an employee is not speaking on its behalf at an event, but a vice president or officer must provide a statement to the Ethics Office stating that attendance is necessary or convenient for USPS business.
If an employee receives an invitation to attend a conference, training, summit, forum, symposium, panel discussion or other networking event free of charge, and if the event is beneficial to the employee and to the Postal Service, then USPS can accept the gift of free attendance — including meals or materials offered to all attendees — and send the employee on its behalf. A vice president or officer must provide a statement to the Ethics Office stating that attendance is necessary or convenient for USPS business.
The Ethics Office ultimately will decide if accepting the gift complies with the regulations.
Seated meals at stand-alone events, such as roundtable luncheons and award dinners, cannot be accepted — unless the Postal Service or an individual employee is receiving an award.
Employees who have been offered free attendance at an event should email the ethics team or call 202-268-6340 to see if the regulations permit them to attend.
