[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 203 (Wednesday, October 21, 1998)]
[Notices]
[Pages 56189-56191]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-28153]
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OFFICE OF GOVERNMENT ETHICS
Proposed Collection; Comment Request: Proposed Slightly Revised
OGE Form 450 Executive Branch Confidential Financial Disclosure Report
AGENCY: Office of Government Ethics (OGE).
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: After this first round notice and public comment period, OGE
plans to submit a slightly revised version of its OGE Form 450 for
confidential financial disclosure reporting under its existing
executive branch regulations for review and three-year approval by the
Office of
[[Page 56190]]
Management and Budget (OMB) under the Paperwork Reduction Act.
DATES: Comments by the agencies and the public on this proposal are
invited and should be received by January 4, 1999.
ADDRESSES: Comments should be sent to William E. Gressman, Associate
General Counsel, Office of Government Ethics, Suite 500, 1201 New York
Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20005-3917. Comments may also be sent
electronically to OGE's Internet E-mail address at usoge@oge.gov (for
E-mail messages, the subject line should include the following
reference--``Proposed Slightly Revised OGE Form 450 Executive Branch
Confidential Financial Disclosure Report'').
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Gressman at the Office of
Government Ethics, telephone: 202-208-8000, ext. 1110; TDD: 202-208-
8025; FAX 202-208-8037. A copy of the proposed slightly revised OGE
Form 450 may be obtained, without charge, by contacting Mr. Gressman.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Office of Government Ethics is planning
to submit, after this notice and comment period (with any modifications
that may appear warranted), a slightly revised version of the OGE Form
450 Executive Branch Confidential Financial Disclosure Report for
three-year approval (reclearance) by OMB under the Paperwork Reduction
Act of 1995, 44 U.S.C. chapter 35. The OGE Form 450 (OMB control #
3209-0006) collects information from covered department and agency
officials as required under OGE's executive branchwide regulatory
provisions in subpart I of 5 CFR part 2634. The revised OGE Form 450
will serve as the uniform report form for collection, on a confidential
basis, of financial information required by the OGE regulation from
certain new entrant and incumbent employees of the Federal Government
executive branch departments and agencies in order to allow ethics
officials to conduct conflict of interest reviews and to resolve any
actual or potential conflicts found.
The basis for the OGE regulation and the report form is two-fold.
First, section 201(d) of Executive Order 12674 of April 12, 1989 (as
modified by Executive Order 12731 of October 17, 1990) makes OGE
responsible for the establishment of a system of nonpublic
(confidential) financial disclosure by executive branch employees to
complement the system of public financial disclosure under the Ethics
in Government Act of 1978 (the ``Ethics Act''), as amended, 5 U.S.C.
appendix. Second, section 107(a) of the Ethics Act, 5 U.S.C. appendix,
Section 107(a), further provides authority for OGE as the supervising
ethics office for the executive branch of the Federal Government to
require that appropriate executive agency employees file confidential
financial disclosure reports, ``in such form as the supervising ethics
office may prescribe.'' The current OGE Form 450, adopted in early
1996, together with the underlying OGE 5 CFR part 2634 regulation,
issued in 1992 and modified since, constitute the basic form OGE has
prescribed for such confidential financial disclosure in the executive
branch.
The relatively minor updating revisions OGE now proposes to make to
the OGE Form 450 will bring it up-to-date and will not require any rule
changes to accomplish. First, OGE proposes to make a couple of
revisions to the Privacy Act and public burden information statements
on page 3 of the instructions to the form. The proposed revisions
include addition to the Privacy Act statement of a reference to the
underlying executive branchwide Privacy Act system of records, OGE/
GOVT-2, for confidential disclosure reports that OGE issued in 1990
upon its separation from the Office of Personnel Management. See 55 FR
6327-6331 (February 22, 1990). Also, the indication of routine use six
for such reports in judicial or administrative proceedings would be
revised to more closely track the wording of the underlying routine use
in the OGE/GOVT-2 system notice. Under the public burden information
statement, OGE proposes to remove the reference to OMB as an additional
point of contact for information collection comments on the OGE Form
450. In accordance with current procedures, OGE will henceforth be
indicated as the sole contact point for such comments, on which OGE
will coordinate with OMB if need be. The Office of Government Ethics is
also correcting a few minor typographical errors on the form (including
the instructions) and is proposing a couple of minor stylistic edits as
well. The mark-up copy of the form as proposed for slight revision,
available from OGE (see the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section
above), shows all of the changes that would be made.
No substantive changes to the OGE Form 450 are being proposed at
this time, though OGE does note (as also referenced on the mark-up copy
of the form) that the thresholds for reporting of gifts and
reimbursements in Part V of the OGE Form 450, currently $250 from any
one source with a $100 de minimis amount, may have to be adjusted
sometime next year if the General Services Administration raises
``minimal value'' under the Foreign Gifts and Decorations Act, 5 U.S.C.
7342(a)(5), to more than $250. (Currently, the minimal value is set at
$245 pursuant to 41 CFR 101-49.001-5 of GSA's regulations.) Under
section 102(a)(2)(A) and (B) of the Ethics Act as amended, 5 U.S.C.
appendix, Sec. 102(a)(2)(A) and (B), the public financial disclosure
reporting thresholds are pegged to any such minimal value increase. The
Office of Government Ethics has, in its 5 CFR part 2634 regulation,
extended the statutory thresholds to confidential financial disclosure
reporting for the executive branch. If the thresholds do need to be
increased, OGE will revise the OGE Form 450, and the underlying part
2634 regulation (public financial disclosure reporting would also be
affected), and coordinate with OMB on the paperwork and rulemaking
aspects of the revision. The Office of Government Ethics will also
advise the departments and agencies of any such change.
The Office of Government Ethics expects that the currently
anticipated slightly revised form should be ready, after OMB clearance,
for dissemination to executive branch departments and agencies early
next year. Once finally cleared, OGE will make the newly revised form
available to departments and agencies in paper, on OGE's ethics CD-ROM
and in the Ethics Resource Library section of the OGE Internet Web site
(address: http://www.usoge.gov). In addition, when time and resources
permit, OGE will endeavor to make an updated electronic version of its
software for the OGE Form 450 available on the OGE Web site. This will
allow employees the option of preparing their forms on a computer,
although a printout and manual signature of the form are still required
unless specifically approved otherwise by OGE. Moreover, OGE also
permits departments and agencies to develop or utilize on their own
electronic versions of the OGE Form 450 provided they precisely
duplicate the paper original to the extent technically possible.
Since 1992 various agencies have developed, with OGE review/
approval, alternative reporting formats, such as certificates of no
conflict, for certain classes of employees.
Other agencies provide for additional disclosures pursuant to
independent organic statutes and in certain other circumstances when
authorized by OGE. Last year, OGE itself developed the new OGE Optional
Form 450-A (Certificate of No New Interests) for possible agency and
employee use in certain years, if applicable. However, the OGE Form 450
[[Page 56191]]
remains the uniform executive branch report form for most of those
executive branch employees who are required by their agencies to report
confidentially on their financial interests. The OGE Form 450 is to be
filed by each reporting individual with the designated agency ethics
official at the executive department or agency where he or she is or
will be employed.
Reporting individuals are regular employees whose positions have
been designated by their agency under 5 CFR part 2634.904 as requiring
confidential financial disclosure in order to help avoid conflicts with
their assigned responsibilities; additionally, all special Government
employees (SGE) are generally required to file. Agencies may, if
appropriate under the OGE regulation, exclude certain regular employees
or SGEs as provided in 5 CFR 2634.905. Reports are normally required to
be filed within 30 days of entering a covered position (or earlier if
required by the agency concerned), and again annually in the fall if
the employee serves for more than 60 days in the position. As indicated
in Sec. 2634.907 of the OGE regulation, the information required to be
collected includes assets and sources of income, liabilities, outside
positions, employment agreements and arrangements, and gifts and travel
reimbursements, subject to certain thresholds and exclusions.
Most of the persons who file this report form are current executive
branch Government employees at the time they complete the forms.
However, some filers are private citizens who are asked by their
prospective agency to file a new entrant report prior to entering
Government service in order to permit advance checking for any
potential conflicts of interest and resolution thereof by agreement to
recuse or divest, obtaining of a waiver, etc. Based on OGE's annual
agency ethics program questionnaire responses for 1996 and 1997, OGE
estimates that an average of approximately 281,500 OGE 450 report forms
will be filed each year for the next three years throughout the
executive branch. This estimate is based on the average number of forms
filed branchwide for the past two years, some 286,450 in 1996 and
276,444 in 1997, for a total of 562,894, with that number then divided
in half and rounded. Of these, OGE estimates that no more than between
5% and 10%, or some 14,075 to 28,150 per year at most, will be filed by
private citizens, those potential (incoming) regular employees whose
positions are designated for confidential disclosure filing as well as
potential special Government employees whose agencies require that they
file their new entrant reports prior to assuming Government
responsibilities. No termination reports are required.
Each filing is estimated to take an average of one and one-half
hours. The number of private citizens whose reports are filed each year
with OGE is less than 10, but pursuant to 5 CFR 1320.3(c)(4)(i), the
lower limit for this general regulatory-based requirement is set at 10
private persons (OGE-processed reports). This yields an annual
reporting burden of 15 hours, the same as in OGE's current OMB
inventory for this information collection. The remainder of the private
citizen reports are filed with other departments and agencies
throughout the executive branch.
Public comment is invited on the proposed slightly revised OGE Form
450 as set forth in this notice, including specifically views on the
need for and practical utility of this proposed modified collection of
information, the accuracy of OGE's burden estimate, the enhancement of
quality, utility and clarity of the information collected, and the
minimization of burden (including the use of information technology).
Comments received in response to this notice will be summarized
for, and may be included with, OGE's future request for OMB paperwork
approval for the proposed slightly revised OGE Form 450. At that time,
OGE will publish a second paperwork notice in the Federal Register to
inform the agencies and the public.
Approved: October 15, 1998.
Stephen D. Potts,
Director, Office of Government Ethics.
[FR Doc. 98-28153 Filed 10-20-98; 8:45 am]
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