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November 13, 1998 DO-98-030

MEMORANDUM

TO: Designated Agency Ethics Officials

FROM: Stephen D. Potts Director

SUBJECT: Reporting Payments Accepted Under 31 U.S.C. § 1353

Section 1353 of title 31, United States Code, authorizes the acceptance by executive branch agencies of payments for travel, subsistence, and related expenses from non-Federal sources in connection with the attendance of employees at certain meetings or similar functions. The statute provides that the head of each agency shall submit to the Director of the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) semiannual reports of payments of more than $250 accepted under this authority. The next semiannual report should be submitted to OGE not later than November 30, 1998, concerning payments received during the period beginning on April 1, 1998, and ending on September 30, 1998. Agencies are required to submit negative reports.

The General Services Administration's (GSA) regulation implementing 31 U.S.C. § 1353 and its reporting requirement are codified at 41 C.F.R. part 304-1. You may continue to prepare your report in accordance with § 304-1.9(a) of that regulation, which lists the information that must be reported by an agency and the order in which that information is to be reported. Alternatively, GSA earlier this year finalized two standard reporting forms, the SF 326, "Semiannual Report of Payments Accepted from a Non-Federal Source" and the SF 326A, Continuation sheet (copies attached), for reporting this information. If you wish to use these forms to prepare your report, they may also be downloaded from GSA's Web site at www.gsa.gov/forms under the "Other Forms" section as Portable Document Format (PDF) files. These standard forms are authorized for local reproduction.

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