Code of Federal Regulations Title 45. Public Welfare § 45.73.735–803 Prohibition against involvement in financial transactions based on information obtained through Federal employment

An employee shall not engage in, directly or indirectly, a financial transaction as a result of, or in primary reliance upon, any information gained through his or her official duties. Information gained through official duties are those facts and other data that relate to the employee's official duties or to the functions of the employing component and would not be available to the employee were he or she not an officer of the Federal government.

Example 1:  An employee working part-time for a consulting firm that does no business with the employee's principal operating component, in the area of health care planning advises it, based upon his or her knowledge of a new health care planning program about to be initiated by the Public Health Service. The employee's knowledge of the program was acquired solely through reading policy statements and other PHS literature available to the public under the Freedom of Information Act. In such case, the employee would not violate this regulation if the outside activity was otherwise approvable under Subpart G.

Example 2:  A contracting officer with detailed knowledge of a negotiated procurement contract invests in a corporation that is likely to indirectly profit from the award of that contract. The officer's decision to invest is based upon technical details of the successful contract proposal that would not otherwise be available to a private citizen. The officer would violate this regulation in such a situation.