[Federal Register Volume 59, Number 126 (Friday, July 1, 1994)]
[Unknown Section]
[Page 0]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 94-16094]
[[Page Unknown]]
[Federal Register: July 1, 1994]
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OFFICE OF GOVERNMENT ETHICS
Submission for OMB Approval of a Proposed Information Collection
Report Form Concerning Payments to Charitable Organizations in Lieu of
Honoraria
AGENCY: Office of Government Ethics (OGE).
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The Office of Government Ethics has submitted to the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval, in accordance with
the Paperwork Reduction Act a proposed OGE form entitled ``Executive
Branch Personnel Confidential Report of Payments to Charitable
Organizations in Lieu of Honoraria'' that will collect information from
certain current and former employees of the executive branch of the
Federal Government. The new form will collect the information
identified in an OGE interim rule, which is not yet effective (and the
renewal of whose paperwork clearance likewise is being sought),
promulgated under the Ethics in Government Act.
DATES: Comments on this proposal should be received by August 1, 1994.
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 10236, Washington, DC 20503;
telephone: 202-395-7316.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: William E. Gressman or Robert W. Cobb,
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 approval from OMB, including the proposed new
form, may be obtained by contacting Mr. Gressman or Mr. Cobb.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Office of Government Ethics proposes to
sponsor a new OGE Form 205 entitled ``Executive Branch Personnel
Confidential Report of Payments to Charitable Organizations in Lieu of
Honoraria'' and is seeking Paperwork Reduction Act approval from the
Office of Management and Budget for it. The new form will collect
pertinent financial information from current officers and employees in
the executive branch (other than special Government employees) who are
required to file annual public financial disclosure reports (SF 278s)
under title I of the Ethics in Government Act of 1978 (the Ethics Act),
as amended, and the OGE regulations at 5 CFR part 2634 as well as from
departing and former such filers on whose behalf payments in lieu of
honoraria are donated to charitable organizations during or based on
the period of their Government service. This is necessary in order to
provide a form to collect certain information required by the financial
disclosure provisions of section 102(a)(1)(A) of the Ethics Act, as
amended by the 1989 Ethics Reform Act, 5 U.S.C. app.
Under 5 U.S.C. app. 501(c), an honorarium that could otherwise be
accepted by a Government employee is deemed not to be received by the
employee if instead it is paid on the employee's behalf to a charitable
organization described in 26 U.S.C. 170(c). (The related honorarium
prohibition at 5 U.S.C. app. 501(b) has been held in abeyance pending
the outcome of ongoing litigation, see U.S. v. National Treasury
Employees Union, No. 93-1170, Supreme Court petition for certiorari
granted April 18, 1994 from 990 F.2d 1271 (D.C. Cir. 1993).) See also 5
CFR part 2636 of the OGE executive branch-wide regulations, as
published at 56 FR 1721-1730 (January 17, 1991) and amended at 57 FR
601-602 (January 8, 1992). For purposes of a qualifying in lieu of
honoraria payment, an employee is not permitted, however, to first
receive the payment and then pass it along or donate it to an eligible
charitable organization. Further, no such payment may exceed $2,000, be
made to a charitable organization from which the employee or his or her
parent, sibling, spouse, child, or dependent relative derives a
financial benefit, or be taken as a tax deduction. See 5 CFR 2636.204.
In addition, the OGE executive branch Standards of Ethical Conduct
generally prohibit any payment for an appearance, speech or article
that relates to an employee's official duties. See 5 CFR 2635.807.
Officers and employees who file the executive branch Standard Form
(SF) 278 ``Executive Branch Personnel Public Financial Disclosure
Report'' under title I of the Ethics Act, which report requires
information on the amount, date and source of any payments to
charitable organizations in lieu of honoraria from a source totaling
more than $200, will also have to file pursuant to the final part of 5
U.S.C. app. 102(a)(1)(A) a supplemental confidential report containing
additional information concerning such payments, including the name of
the recipient of the payment. This separate confidential reporting
requirement of public financial disclosure report (SF 278) filers is
not yet effective as to the executive branch pending issuance by OGE of
an OMB-approved supplemental report form to collect the information.
See 56 FR 21589 (May 10, 1991), 56 FR 51319 (October 11, 1991), and 57
FR 5369 (February 14, 1992) (since then, OGE has decided to make the
new report an OGE, not a standard, form; thus, General Services
Administration clearance will not be needed). Moreover, OGE has now
determined that filers of the confidential financial disclosure report
forms (Standard Form 450s) should not be included in this supplemental
in lieu of honoraria reporting requirement; 5 CFR 2636.205 will be
amended accordingly prior to its effective date.
Once this new form is approved and OGE makes the underlying
regulatory provision, as modified, effective, public annual and
termination SF 278 filers will have to separately file the confidential
payments in lieu of honoraria form, but only if they have any such
payments to report. In other words, negative (or ``None'') reports of
charitable payments in lieu of honoraria are not required. Furthermore,
new entrants and nominees are not subject to reporting under the OGE
rule as the statutory provisions only apply to employees during their
term of Government service.
The reporting period for an annual report for payments in lieu of
honoraria will be the preceding calendar year or, in the case of a
filer who entered Government during the prior year, that portion of the
preceding calendar year beginning with the filer's date of entry on
duty (if the filer's Government service exceeded 60 days in the
previous year). The reporting period for a termination report of a
public SF 278 filer will be the portion of the calendar year of
termination to the date the filer left the Government and, if the filer
has not already filed an annual report covering the period, the
preceding calendar year or other period required for that report.
The Office of Government Ethics anticipates that this supplemental
reporting requirement will become effective around January 1995
covering both terminees and annual filers (the first annual reports
will cover calendar year 1994, the regular due date for which is May
15, 1995). Further, if a public SF 278 filer leaves Government service
(or a reportable position) before the future effective date of this new
supplemental reporting requirement, no supplemental in lieu of
honoraria charitable payments report will be due when this new
requirement finally does take effect. Once OMB approval is obtained for
the new form, OGE will distribute it to all executive branch
departments and agencies for local reproduction.
The information to be reported on the OGE Form 205 will consist of,
in addition to the amount of the payment(s) in lieu of an honorarium
totaling more than $200 from any one source and the name and status (or
charitable purpose) of the charitable organization(s) to which the
payment(s) was donated on the employee's behalf, the date of the
payment(s), the date on which the employee made an underlying
appearance or speech or on which an underlying article was submitted
for publication, the name of the entity making the payment to the
charitable recipient, and the subject matter of the speech or article
or the reason for the appearance. Terminee SF 278 filers will also have
to separately report any such charitable payments contemplated, but not
yet made, for appearances, speeches, or articles made before
termination of their Government service.
These reports are to be filed with the employing executive branch
departments and agencies which, under the law and regulation, are to
transmit them each year to OGE (which in turn reviews the reports of
Senate-confirmed Presidential appointees.) This information will be
reviewed by Government officials at the employing agencies and OGE to
determine compliance with applicable laws and regulations. This
confidential report will not be disclosed to any requesting person
unless otherwise authorized by law. See also the form notice and the
OGE/GOVT-2 Privacy Act Government-wide executive branch system of
records (which will be revised to additionally cover these new reports)
for an explanation of the routine uses of this information on the form.
As this is a new reporting requirement with no prior data as to the
number of forms being filed annually, the total number of forms to be
filed annually and those to be filed by terminees who have already left
the Government by the time they fill out their reports (i.e., private
citizens) must of necessity be very approximate estimates.
Given a potential estimated reporting population of about 19,300
annual and terminee public SF 278 filers each year in the executive
branch (based on an OGE 1993 agency survey) and based on a 1993
sampling of some 200 SF 278 reports (which failed to reveal any in lieu
of honoraria charitable payments), OGE currently contemplates that less
than 0.5% of SF 278 filers will have payments on their behalf to
charitable organizations in lieu of honoraria to report. This means
that no more than 97 such reports are expected to be filed annually. Of
those 97 report forms, OGE believes that approximately 8%, a total of
some eight each year, will be filed by non-Government employee filers
(public SF 278 filer terminees having in lieu of honoraria payments to
report who are no longer Federal employees when they file). Normally,
OMB Paperwork Reduction Act approval is required for a nonstatistical
collection of information only if it affects 10 or more private persons
each year (not counting Federal employees for information collections
within the scope of their employment). However, pursuant to 5 CFR
1320.7(s)(1), an information collection contained in a rule of general
applicability such as 5 CFR 2636.205 of OGE's regulations is deemed to
affect 10 or more such persons annually. Thus, OGE is submitting this
new form for OMB paperwork approval (and is seeking paperwork renewal
for the as-yet not effective underlying regulation, which was initially
approved under the Paperwork Reduction Act by OMB on April 10, 1991).
The average response time for completion of the proposed report
form is estimated to be one-half hour. Thus, the estimated actual
reporting burden on the public will be four hours, eight report forms
(just counting those filed by private citizens) times one-half hour per
form. However, using the Sec. 1320.7(s)(1) regulatory minimum of 10
private citizen filers, the estimated burden will come to five hours.
This is a significant reduction in the estimated burden from 1991 (200
hours) when OGE submitted the underlying regulation (again, not yet
effective) for OMB paperwork clearance. As noted, this reduction
results primarily from OGE's recent decision to exclude the large body
of confidential SF 450 filers from this future supplemental reporting
requirement as well as the lowered estimate of the percentage of public
SF 278 filers who will have in lieu of honoraria charitable payments to
report.
Approved: June 24, 1994.
Stephen D. Potts,
Director, Office of Government Ethics.
[FR Doc. 94-16094 Filed 6-30-94; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6345-01-U