What does the broken-down Washington, D.C. Metro system have to do with contractor ethics concerns?  Potentially a lot if your employees live close to feds and work in the same area. As Metro implements a program to close stations beyond National Airport, traffic is becoming a nightmare that feds and on-site contractors are already complaining about. The urge to carpool to avoid this mess will be strong.  Plus, most people like helping out colleagues in need.  It’s important to understand, though, that free rides to and from work could unintentionally pose an ethics problem for your company.  Federal ethics laws prohibit covered entities (contractors fall in this class) from providing anything of value to a federal official.  Indeed, both feds and contractors have been dunned over free rides previously.  In one instance, even when a group of people were at the same conference and then flying out of the same airport at the same time, it was deemed improper for a contractor to provide a ride for a federal employee, even though they had space in their car.  It’s definitely worth reminding your staff that favors done or gifts given that are not based solely on someone’s personal relationship can get both you and the federal official in trouble,  That includes car rides to get around Metro’s summertime debacle.  Make sure your people respond accordingly.