<Li> Ensuring that individual agency ethics programs are functioning properly by setting the requirements for them, supporting them, and reviewing them . </Li> <P> The Director of OGE is appointed by the President after confirmation by the U.S. Senate . The Director of OGE serves a five - year term, thereby overlapping presidential terms, and is subject to no term limit . The rest of the OGE employees are career civil servants . Created by the Ethics in Government Act of 1978, OGE separated from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management in 1989 pursuant to reform legislation . </P> <P> The acting Director of OGE is currently David J. Apol, formerly the general counsel of the OGE . </P> <P> A series of tweets on 30 November 2016 from the office's official Twitter account praised President - elect Donald Trump for planning to divest his business holdings in order to resolve potential conflicts of interest, following an announcement where Trump reaffirmed his intent to take himself out of business operations, despite him having made no firm commitment to a divestment like selling his businesses or a blind trust . A number of observers speculated that the office's account might have been hacked, a suggestion it later denied . The New York Times suggested that the apparent misunderstanding behind the postings were deliberately intended to reveal the independent agency had advised Trump's legal counsel that a divestment was the only adequate remedy for resolving any conflict, and, by extension, pressure Trump into doing so . A Freedom of Information Act request by news organization The Daily Dot revealed that OGE Director Walter M. Shaub personally ordered officials within the agency to post the 9 tweets . </P>

Who is the head of the office of government ethics