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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