Agency Spotlight: USDA and DOI Created a Helpful Interactive Module for Navigating the OGE Form 450

To help federal employees across the executive branch, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), in partnership with the Department of the Interior (DOI), has created this novel gamification training module. In their confidential financial disclosure (OGE Form 450 or OGE-450) training game, you are assigned to work as part of a joint USDA-DOI team on an island, reducing farm crop damage by invasive species and conducting research to help other beneficial species.

This interactive game focuses on the four most common “ethics blind spots” that busy filers often miss, which can cause delays in the review process. To succeed in your mission, you will need to identify major “ethics blind spots” and avoid the most common mistakes made on OGE-450s. Their ethics programs hope you find that this interactive training provides an engaging way for you and your agency’s filers to better and more quickly identify reportable:

(1) outside positions,

(2) spousal assets, and

(3) sector funds and

(4) comply with underlying asset reporting requirements.

There are two versions of the OGE-450 training module:

Version 1 - OGE-450 Training Game – Experience this version of the training game if you wish to use both your keyboard and computer mouse. The videos in this version start automatically and are fully closed captioned.

Version 2 – OGE-450 Training Game – Experience this version of the training game if you wish to only use your keyboard. This version can be completed without a computer mouse. Also, this version contains audio descriptions, and you control the start of all videos – they do not autoplay in this version. Version 2, like Version 1, is also fully closed caption.

Here is the main page to access info on the USDA-DOI OGE-450 Training Game and its versions: https://www.usda.gov/about-usda/general-information/staff-offices/office-ethics/oge-450-training.

Disclaimer: “Agency Spotlight” products are created by the agencies credited and have not been reviewed by OGE for legal accuracy or sufficiency.  OGE strongly recommends that agencies considering using these products first review them for legal accuracy and appropriateness before deploying them in their programs.