[Federal Register: June 30, 1995 (Volume 60, Number 126)]
[Notices]
[Page 34258-34259]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr30jn95-98]

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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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