[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 126 (Friday, June 30, 1995)]
[Notices]
[Pages 34258-34259]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-16068]



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OFFICE OF GOVERNMENT ETHICS


Submission of Executive Branch Confidential Financial Disclosure 
Reporting Format for Extension of OMB Approval Under the Paperwork 
Reduction Act

AGENCY: Office of Government Ethics (OGE).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Office of Government Ethics has submitted the Standard 
Form (SF) 450 Executive Branch Confidential Financial Disclosure 
Report, along with its underlying regulatory provisions for a two-year 
extension of Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval under the 
Paperwork Reduction Act.

DATES: Comments on this proposal should be received by July 31, 1995.

ADDRESSES: Comments should be sent to Joseph F. Lackey, Office of 
Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, 
New Executive Office Building, Room 10235, Washington, DC 20503; 
telephone: 202-395-7316.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Heather N. Sigrist or William E. 
Gressman, Office of Government Ethics, Suite 500, 1201 New York Avenue 
NW., Washington, DC 20005-3917; telephone 202-523-5757, FAX 202-523-
6325. A copy of OGE's request for extension from OMB, including a copy 
of the SF 450 Confidential Financial Disclosure Report, may be obtained 
by contacting Ms. Sigrist or Mr. Gressman.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Office of Government Ethics is 
submitting the SF 450 Confidential Financial Disclosure Report, and the 
underlying regulatory provisions primarily at subpart I of OGE's 5 CFR 
part 2634 regulation, for renewed approval by OMB under the Paperwork 
Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. chapter 35). The SF 450 serves 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 resolution of any actual or potential conflicts found.
    The basis for the OGE regulation and the SF 450 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 executive agency employees file confidential financial 
disclosure reports, ``in such form as the supervising ethics office may 
prescribe.'' The 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 form, constitute the 
form OGE has prescribed for such confidential financial disclosure in 
the executive branch.
    The Office of Government Ethics has submitted this confidential 
financial disclosure form package for a two-year extension of Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) approval under the Paperwork Reduction Act. 
A new OGE form 450 to replace the SF 450 is anticipated in the next 
year or two (see the further discussion below).
    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. Once ready, it will likewise be submitted for 
OMB paperwork approval, after which it will supersede the SF 450. 
Again, OGE expects that the new form will be ready, after OMB 
clearance, for dissemination to executive branch departments and 
agencies in the next 

[[Page 34259]]
year or two. The Office of Government Ethics will provide appropriate 
guidance and phase-in time to departments and agencies once the new 
form is available.
    For now, the SF 450 Confidential Financial Disclosure Report, 
available from GSA, continues to serve as the standard form for 
executive branch collections of confidential financial information 
required by 5 CFR part 2634 (see Sec. 2634.601(a) and subpart I), for 
both regular and special Government employees SGE. 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. However, the SF 450 remains the 
uniform executive branch report form for most executive branch 
employees who are required to report confidentially on their financial 
interests. The SF 450 report form is filed by each reporting individual 
with the designated agency ethics official at the executive 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 are 
generally required to file. Agencies may, if appropriate under the OGE 
regulation, exclude 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 10%, or some 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.

    Approved: June 26, 1995.
Donald E. Campbell,
Deputy Director, Office of Government Ethics.
[FR Doc. 95-16068 Filed 6-29-95; 8:45 am]
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