Océ

Océ, a Canon company is a Netherlands-based company that develops, manufactures and sells printing and copying hardware and related software. The offering includes office printing and copying systems; production printers and wide format printing systems for both technical documentation and color display graphics. The company was founded in 1877. With headquarters in Venlo, the Netherlands, Océ is active in over 100 countries and employs more than 20,000 people worldwide.

The company has research and development and production facilities in the Netherlands, Canada, Belgium, Germany, France, Japan, the Czech Republic, Romania, Hungary and the United States.

In 2010 Océ was acquired by Canon Inc. of Japan.

History

Founding

Océ started in 1877 as a family business in manufacturing machines for coloring butter and margarine. The company’s founder, a chemist named Lodewijk van der Grinten, supplied this coloring to farmers and then this was supplied to the margarine factories of Jurgens and Van den Bergh. In 1930, the margarine factories of Jurgens and Van den Bergh and the English Lever Brothers merged to become Unilever. From 1877 to 1972, Unilever used only the coloring produced by the Venlo factory in its margarine.

Office of Congressional Ethics

The Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), established by the U.S. House of Representatives in March 2008, is an independent, non-partisan entity charged with reviewing allegations of misconduct against members of the House of Representatives and their staff and, when appropriate, referring matters to the United States House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, commonly referred to as the Ethics Committee.

Overview

As its mission, the office strives to “give the public a 'window' into ethics enforcement in the United States House of Representatives.” Governed by an eight-person Board of Directors, Members of the OCE Board are private citizens and cannot serve as members of Congress or work for the federal government. The OCE lacks subpoena power and must complete each review in a relatively short period of time—approximately three months at most.

The OCE review process requires approval of the board at each step. In order to open a preliminary review lasting no longer than 30 days, there must be "reasonable cause to believe allegations," according to the OCE. In order to proceed to a second phase, or further review, there must be "probably case to believe allegations." The second phase may last no longer than 59 days, including optional 14-day extension. Following completion of second phase review, the OCE board votes to refer a matter to the House Ethics Committee with a recommendation for or against further review by the committee. The recommendation comes in the form of a report which must be released to the public unless the OCE recommendation was against further review.