[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 170 (Friday, September 1, 1995)]
[Notices]
[Pages 45722-45723]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-21753]
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OFFICE OF GOVERNMENT ETHICS
Advance Notice of Proposed Modified Form for Executive Branch
Confidential Financial Disclosure Reporting To Be Submitted to OMB for
Approval Under the Paperwork Reduction Act
AGENCY: Office of Government Ethics (OGE).
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The Office of Government Ethics plans to submit a new OGE Form
450 for confidential financial disclosure reporting under its existing
executive branch regulations for approval by the Office of Management
and Budget (OMB) under the Paperwork Reduction Act. This new, modified
form will replace the existing Standard Form (SF) 450.
DATES: Comments on this proposal should be received by November 15,
1995.
ADDRESSES: Comments should be sent to William E. Gressman, Office of
Government Ethics, Suite 500, 1201 New York Avenue, NW., Washington, DC
20005-3917.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Gressman at the Office of
Government Ethics, telephone 202-523-5757 (ext. 1110), FAX 202-523-
6325. A copy of OGE's draft form 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 proposed new OGE Form 450 Executive
Branch Confidential Financial Disclosure Report for three-year approval
by OMB under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. chapter
35). Once finally approved by OMB and adopted by OGE, the new OGE form
will replace the existing SF 450 Executive Branch Personnel
Confidential Financial Disclosure Report. The SF 450 collects, as will
the future OGE Form 450, information required under OGE's executive
branchwide regulatory provisions. See subpart I of 5 CFR part 2634. The
new OGE Form 450 will serve, as does the current SF 450, 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 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 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 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
SF 450, together with the underlying OGE regulation, both adopted in
1992 after appropriate clearances from OMB as well as the General
Services Administration (GSA) for the standard form, constitute the
form OGE has prescribed for such confidential financial disclosure in
the executive branch. The Office of Government Ethics recently sought a
limited paperwork renewal from OMB as to the existing SF 450 in order
to allow sufficient time for OGE to develop and clear the new OGE Form
450 which is the subject of this advance notice. See 60 FR 34258-34259
(June 30, 1995). The new OGE form will not require GSA clearance, since
it is not a standard (or optional) form under the GSA program. The
Office of Government Ethics will provide further information in the
future to the agencies and the public about the details of phasing in
the new form, once it is finally cleared and adopted, and phasing out
the existing standard form.
Since the OGE's financial disclosure regulation at 5 CFR part 2634
and the reporting format were adopted in 1992, there have been certain
revisions to each. The most significant of these is the determination
of OGE to exclude from general executive branch confidential financial
disclosure the reporting of cash accounts in depository institutions
(including banks), money market mutual funds and accounts and U.S.
Government obligations and securities. See 58 FR 63023-63024 (November
30, 1993). The Office of Government Ethics has directed executive
departments and agencies to notify all filers of this change, which is
not reflected on the SF 450 itself. The new OGE replacement form will
reflect that change, as well as various other changes and improvements
in the reporting format, to make it clearer and more user-friendly. A
more complete set of instructions for filling out the form is included
in the draft OGE Form 450 and helpful examples are set forth on the
reporting parts.
The Office of Government Ethics expects that the new form should be
ready, after OMB clearance, for dissemination to executive branch
departments and agencies early next year. The Office of Government
Ethics will provide appropriate guidance and phase-in time to
departments and agencies once the new form is available. The new form
will be made available in paper, on electronic disk and on OGE's
electronic bulletin board entitled ``The Ethics Bulletin Board System''
(TEBBS). In addition, OGE will work on making available a future
electronic version of the form, to allow employees the option of
preparing it on a computer. The Office of Government Ethics also
intends to permit departments and agencies to develop or utilize, on
their own, electronic versions of the form provided that they precisely
duplicate the paper original to the extent 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. However, the future
OGE Form 450, as successor to the current SF 450, will remain 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 confidential report form 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 as requiring confidential financial
disclosure in order to help avoid conflicts with their assigned
responsibilities; additionally, all special Government employees
[[Page 45723]]
(SGEs) 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 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, gifts and travel reimbursements,
liabilities, employment agreements and arrangements, and outside
positions, 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, divest, obtaining of a waiver, etc. Based on OGE's annual
agency ethics questionnaire responses, approximately 285,000 SF 450
report forms were filed during 1994 throughout the executive branch. Of
these, OGE estimates that no more than between 5% and 10%, or some
14,500 to 28,500 per year at most, are filed by private citizens, those
potential 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.
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 1320.7(s)(1), 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 the 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 each aspect of the proposed new 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 submitted in response to this notice will be
summarized for, and may be included with, the OGE request for OMB
paperwork approval for this modified information collection. The
comments will also become a matter of public record.
Approved: August 28, 1995.
Stephen D. Potts,
Director, Office of Government Ethics.
[FR Doc. 95-21753 Filed 8-31-95; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6345-01-U
