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If you occasionally find yourself wondering about kind of unethical mischief public officials can get tangled up in, or if you’re an official hoping to steer clear of potential ethical misdeeds, you should definitely take a look at a little known report prepared by the Department of Defense General Counsel’s Standards of Conduct office.

“The Encyclopedia of Ethical Failure” is a compendium of stories drawn from actual cases of employees and officials in various federal agencies who have run aground on ethics laws. Its vignettes are sometimes entertaining and funny, but most often mind-boggling in their stupidity. It’s updated annually and, most importantly, it’s available as a free download.

The cases run the gamut from complex criminal frauds to more mundane ethical lapses.

Here are a few that sound like they could easily have occurred in a local state or county office.

One that rang a bell involved the retirement of the “Big Boss.”

“The Big Boss was retiring and his second-in-command called the secretary to ask her to set up a retirement party. He directed her to send a memo to the staff advising them of what they were expected to contribute. She was assigned paper plates, napkins, plastic utensils, and a paper tablecloth. Everyone, including the secretary, was expected to contribute $25 for food and gifts. To the surprise of no one, the second-in-command was selected as the new Big Boss.”

So far, so good. But then the cycle was repeated. The branch chief called the secretary and directed her to organize a promotion party for the new big boss, again telling everyone to dig into their wallets for a contribution towards gifts and food. And when, again to no one’s surprise, the branch chief was in turn promoted to be the new second-in-command, her assistant told the secretary to begin arrangements for yet another round of partying.

Third time being a charm, the secretary instead contacted the department’s ethics office and complained.

The entry cites the applicable federal ethics law that applies, and also translates the provision for “gifts between employees” into plain language.

“In general an employee may not give a gift or make a donation to a gift to a superior. Furthermore, employees may not generally accept gifts from other employees who receive less pay.

There are exceptions, and those result in some muddying of the ethical waters. On birthdays and holidays when gifts are generally exchanged, gifts valued at $10 or less may be shared. And on certain occasions, such as a retirement that ends a superior-subordinate relationship, “voluntary contributions of nominal value for group gifts” may be solicited or made.

The state ethics code is even less clear. For one thing, there’s no distinct provision covering “gifts between employees,” and I don’t recall the restriction on soliciting money from subordinates being applied in the context of an office party, even when the implied arm-twisting is very apparent.

Another area that has local ramifications involves “personal relationships” at work, many examples of which are included among the reported “ethical failures.”

One reported case involved a senior executive who “engaged in an intimate relationship with a subordinate, provided her preferential treatment when selecting her for a new position, and misused government resources and official time.”

The report then states: “Witnesses noted that the official failed to hold his paramour accountable for her professional responsibilities, and when confronted by other employees, became verbally abusing, vengeful, and angry.”

You hear such relationships being whispered about in local offices, but they rarely trigger official investigations. Perhaps they should.

In this case, the federal official retired before the investigation was completed, but the relationship was found to have violated standards of conduct.

Then there are other cases involving personal relationships between a government employee and an employee or official of a company doing business with the agency. Sometimes these involve sex, but more often accepting illegal gifts or kickbacks for pushing contracts to the outside companies.

Moonlighting by public employees was a factor in other situations.

In one case, an army officer ordered a series of posters at the department’s print shop, saying they were for official business.

“The posters were actually for the employee’s side business. Additionally, the employee purchased a conference table, for which his own business got a $400 credit toward a conference table of its own.”

In this case, the officer was convicted of stealing government property and making false statements by failing to disclose the side business on required financial disclosure statements. The officer was sentenced to six months house arrest, two years probation, and a fine of $25,000.

What’s striking in this collection is the number of cases involving high ranking military officers or others in key departmental positions who were caught in major ethical violations and even criminal acts.

Steve Epstein, the founding editor of the Encyclopedia of Ethical Failure said in a recent radio interview that, in general, government employees get into trouble when they succumb to moments of temptation.

In most cases, he observed: “It was an error in judgment of people who were generally well meaning but at the time they saw an advantage, or they saw something which distracted them from what they should have been doing, and I think in most of the cases when you would sit down with these folks afterwards and say, ‘What were you thinking?’ they would be banging their heads on the table and saying, ‘You’re right, I wasn’t thinking.’”

Epstein suggested that, if in doubt about the ethics of any action, you ask yourself: How would this appear, what would people say about my judgement if this were publicly disclosed? If you’re uncomfortable with the answer, best to back off.

That’s very good advice.

Browse through this 163-page chronicle of ethical lapses. Then, if you are aware of questionable activities by government officials or public employees, or if you need help sorting out whether something you’ve been asked to do is on the right side of the ethics divide, the state and county ethics commissions are your immediate resource.