Proposed Collection; Comment Request: Proposed Slightly Revised OGE Form 450 Executive Branch Confidential Financial Disclosure Report

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: 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

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] BILLING CODE 6345-01-U