Summary: In response to a congressional request, GAO: (1) compiled statistics on federal agencies' enforcement of criminal laws involving federal employees' ethical misconduct; and (2) determined the actions taken on alleged violations of criminal conflict-of-interest statutes in 1985 and 1986.
GAO found that: (1) the agencies detected 304 possible violations of conflict-of-interest statutes in 1985 and 1986; (2) the agencies referred 124 allegations to the Department of Justice for prosecutive determination; (3) 112 allegations involved possible criminal violations of conflict-of-interest statutes; (4) Justice prosecuted 2 of the allegations, and one case resulted in a conviction not related to conflict of interest, and the other remained open; (5) Justice declined to prosecute 107 of the referrals and had not decided whether to prosecute the remaining 13; and (6) agencies took administrative action on 22 allegations, including 16 of the 112 referred to Justice, and were deciding whether to take administrative action on an additional 56 allegations.
