President Trump's pick to lead the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) has clashed with outgoing chief Walter Shaub over how rigidly the agency enforces conflict-of-interest laws and other policies, according to a new report.

David Apol, Trump's nominee and the former general counsel for the OGE, has disagreed with Shaub multiple times over whether people seeking government positions should give up stock options and financial assets before accepting their new roles, The New York Times reported.

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In one instance, Apol and Shaub disagreed over whether a former senior executive at Lyft should be required to give up stock options before taking a job at the Department of Transportation. Apol wanted to allow it, but Shaub disagreed, blasting the idea.

“It was so immediately obviously crazy,” Shaub said in an interview with the Times, going on to describe Apol's approach to government ethics as “loosey-goosey.”

One associate general counsel with OGE said that Apol's rulings were often more "permissive" than what OGE policy allows.

“Dave Apol is undeniably smart,” Richard Thomas told the Times. “However, in my experience, Dave had a tendency toward idiosyncratic legal interpretations that frequently were more permissive than OGE orthodoxy.”

In an interview with the Times, Apol said that the OGE should be managed to serve the public's trust and said he wouldn't change ethics rules in a way that would complicate serving the public good.

“As an attorney in the office, I thought it was useful to ask if all the assumptions we made and practices we had were necessarily the best way to do things,” Apol said. “I would oppose changing the rules in any way that did not protect the public’s trust.”

Other moves being considered by Apol include asking the White House before responding to members of Congress who raise questions about ethics matters and consulting with the Trump administration on policy matters.

Shaub called these moves a bad idea.

“Moves like this jeopardize O.G.E.’s independence,” Shaub said.

In a statement, the White House told the Times that Apol would be a "welcome" change to the agency's leadership.

“The White House welcomes a return to a traditional working relationship with the Office of Government Ethics in which both entities share a common goal of ensuring public confidence that the executive branch is adhering to the highest possible ethical standards as opposed to an approach whereby individuals manufacture false conflicts for purposes of self-promotion,” spokeswoman Lindsay Walters told the Times.

Shaub drew headlines even before Trump's inauguration after the OGE made a series of tweets in November last year meant to pressure the president-elect to divest from his business interests.

When Trump decided to stay on as owner of Trump enterprises while transferring day-to-day management to his two eldest sons, Schaub fired back with a speech in Washington.