[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 [email protected] (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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