Executive Office Gift Register Workflow

executive office gift register

Log and route gifts, hospitality, travel, discounts, and other benefits offered to an executive without making informal compliance decisions.

Capture the offer before acceptance

Record what was offered, by whom, to whom, when, where, for what stated reason, and whether a decision deadline exists. Include hospitality, travel, discounts, favors, tickets, donations, and benefits directed through family or staff when policy requires it. Do not estimate intent from the giver's tone.

Check the governing route

Identify the ethics, legal, compliance, procurement, public-sector, client, or industry rule that controls the review. Send the facts to the named owner before anyone accepts, uses, transfers, or returns the item. An assistant's familiarity with a giver does not replace formal review.

Describe value without inventing precision

Record a receipt, published price, face value, or other support when available. Label estimates and their source clearly. Do not split one benefit into smaller entries or choose a low value merely to fit an approval threshold.

Protect sensitive context

Limit access to personal addresses, travel plans, client relationships, government contacts, and assessment notes. Keep the register in the approved compliance system rather than a personal spreadsheet. Use neutral calendar entries if a review meeting is required.

Execute the documented decision

Follow written direction to accept, decline, return, donate, share, reimburse, or retain the item. Keep shipping, reimbursement, donation, or acknowledgment evidence with the entry. Do not substitute a different recipient or use because the original option is inconvenient.

Coordinate communications carefully

Use approved wording with the giver and avoid implying misconduct when a policy requires refusal. Do not promise publicity, access, preferential scheduling, or future business in exchange for a benefit. Route media or stakeholder questions to the authorized spokesperson.

Review patterns, not just single entries

Ask the compliance owner to review repeat givers, clustered offers, pending decisions, missing values, and benefits routed through events or vendors. Reconcile physical storage with the register. Update intake guidance when the same facts are repeatedly omitted.

Check register completeness

Reconcile offered items, event hospitality, courier deliveries, travel invitations, reimbursements, decisions, and physical custody with compliance owners. Look for repeated missing fields and overdue reviews rather than inferring misconduct. Improve the intake route and reminders while keeping access to the register appropriately narrow.

Common questions

Should inexpensive gifts be logged?

Follow the applicable policy rather than assuming an item is too small to record.

Can an assistant return a gift immediately?

Use the approved review and communication route unless policy already directs immediate return.

Does hospitality count as a gift?

Record the offer when the governing policy includes hospitality or related benefits.

Source and service boundaries

Support disciplined routing through C-suite assistant coverage and the donation screening workflow. Discuss executive office coordination without including register entries. Compliance resource: Department of Justice FCPA resources.