(a) General prohibition. Except as provided in paragraph (c) of this section, no DHS employee may purchase, directly or indirectly, property that is:

(1) Owned by the Federal Government and under the control of the employee's agency, unless the sale of the property is being conducted by the General Services Administration; or

(2) Seized or forfeited under the direction or incident to the functions of the employee's agency.

(b) Designated separate components. For purposes of this section, the employee's agency is the relevant separate agency component as set forth in § 4601.102 of this part.

(c) Waiver. Employees may make a purchase prohibited by paragraph (a) of this section where a written waiver of the prohibition is issued in advance by the agency designee with the clearance of the DAEO or his or her designee. A waiver may only be granted if it is not otherwise prohibited by law or regulation and the purchase of the property will not cause a reasonable person with knowledge of the particular circumstances to question the employee's impartiality, or create the appearance that the employee has used his or her official position or nonpublic information for his or her personal gain.