May 7, 1998
                                   DO-98-019

MEMORANDUM

TO:       Designated Agency Ethics Officials

FROM:     Stephen D. Potts
          Director

SUBJECT:  Update -- Nominee Public Financial Disclosure Reports and
          Certificates of Divestiture


     The U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE) issued a DAEOgram
on April 8, 1998 (DO-98-013), concerning the timeliness of Nominee
Public Financial Disclosure Reports.  The DAEOgram requested agency
reviewers to add a statement to nominee reports noting that the
information on the report had been updated in accordance with
required time periods.  However, in light of agency concerns with
respect to the administrative burden in processing disclosure
reports containing this type of notation, we are withdrawing our
request.  We will instead explore the possibility of a legislative
solution to facilitate the disclosure process for agencies
processing nominee reports.  

     In the meantime, we will continue to process and review
nominee reports under the same procedures we have been following in
past years.  This means, as explained in our above-mentioned
DAEOgram, that in recognizing that the review process often begins
several months before an individual is nominated, this Office will
accept a report that may have been signed and dated by the nominee
up to six months prior to its transmittal to the Senate.  Agency
ethics officials should counsel nominees early in this process and
encourage them to provide updated information where appropriate. 
This will protect the nominees from possible conflicts and
appearance issues that may have arisen during the period between
the date they signed the report and submission of the report to the
Senate.

     Finally, the earlier DAEOgram discussed the effect of these
updates on Certificate of Divestiture (CD) applications.  We would
like to reiterate that we do not consider assets to be divested by
a nominee eligible for CD certification (except under unusual and
extraordinary circumstances) unless they are prohibited or
otherwise problematic assets which --

     (i)  were disclosed in the financial disclosure report
          transmitted to the Senate, and

     (ii) were held by the filer on the date the employee was
          counseled by his ethics official.       

     As mentioned in the earlier DAEOgram, unusual and
extraordinary circumstances do not include inadvertent omissions,
mistakes of fact, the acceptance of gifts, or the lack of actual
knowledge due to acquisitions of assets through the use of agents
or fiduciaries acting under discretionary powers.  Such
circumstances do include inheritances of attributable property in
which a beneficial interest was not previously held.