The Office of Government Ethics (OGE), DOD Office of General Counsel, General Counsel of the Navy, SecArmy, and COMNAVSUPSYSCOM, all issued guidance reducing requirements for "micropurchasers" to file OGE Confidential Financial Disclosure reports. "Micropurchasers" are currently defined as persons whose combined annual purchases total less than $100,000. If, after reviewing the guidance linked below, you suspect that you may have been inappropriately required to file one or more OGE 450 reports, we would like to hear from you, and we ask that you please complete and return our OGE 450 survey.

• Guidance from Director OGE (9/14/94): "While the 1992 regulation offered greater flexibility to agencies, it had the unintended effect of increasing the number of filers." (DAEOgram# DO94031; If you get "document contains no data" errors, keep trying, or try here and open DO94031.)
• Guidance from DOD General Counsel, General Counsel of the Navy, SecArmy (8/99-1/00) "micro-purchasers who make annual purchases totaling less than ... (... $100,000), shall be excluded from filing the OGE Form 450." (Note: The letter from DOD General Counsel contains two typographical errors: It should reference "5 CFR 2634.904(a)(1)(ii)" instead of "5 CFR 2534.904(a)(!)(ii)")
• Guidance from ComNavSupSysCom (3/23/00) (search for "OGE") Since NavSupSysCom is a different chain of command from ours, ComNavSupSysCom's policy does not apply to us, but it does raise the question: "Why are we doing it differently here?")
• Joint Ethics Regulation (Supervisor discretion, see sec. 7-300: Individuals Required to File (Word version)(text version))
• OGE 450: A Review Guide: storage and handling, p. 4: "should be maintained in locked cabinets and passed between offices with the utmost care, to ensure that unauthorized personnel do not have access to them."; over-designation of filers ( DO-94-031, 9/14/94; If you get "document contains no data" errors, keep trying, or try here and open DO94031.), p. 49: "... 1992 regulation ... had the unintended effect of increasing the number of filers. In order to correct this over-designation, we strongly urge agencies to reevaluate their designations .... not all employees who must sign a procurement integrity certification ... must ... file a confidential financial disclosure report.... at OGE ... those desk officers, management analysts, and attorneys who ... do not have supervisory responsibilities will no longer be required to file."; official time ( DO-95-043, 12/13/95; If you get "document contains no data" errors, keep trying, or try here and open DO95043.), p. 53: "because completion of the SF 450 or SF 278 is a requirement of their Government position, they should be allowed to use reasonable periods of official time in amounts to be deterined by their ageency". (Total document is 68 pp. in pdf format (Adobe Acrobat Reader required)).
• DOD general Guidance concerning OGE 450 (sample instructions for designation and collection of the reports)
• Links at Wright-Patterson AFB to OGE Regulations and Federal Register Notices
• OGE Site index contains many links to related stuff: relevant Executive Orders, guidance, opinions, Federal Register and CFR entries
• Ethics Counselor's Deskbook 2000
• 5 CFR 2634 Executive Branch Financial Disclosure ...
• 5 CFR 2634.904 Confidential Filer Defined
• 5 CFR 2634.905 Exclusions from filing requirements

Grievability and arbitrability of filing designations has already been tested by AFGE Local 3258. In 53 FLRA No. 115 (Feb 19, 1998, go to http://www.flra.gov/decisions/start/searchpg.html and search for "0-AR-2734"), it was determined that designation to file OGE 450 was grievable and arbitrable; however, subsequent to that case, 5 CFR 2634.906 was rewritten to specifically exclude such grievability or arbitration (thereby nullifying the effect of 0-AR-2734). In that change, it was clarified that the agency head (or his designee) is the "sole and exclusive" and final review authority (63 FR 15273-15274). For employees represented by Local 2113, the "agency" is the Department of the Navy (5 CFR 2634.105(b), 5 USC 102), and the designee for DoN is the Office of the General Counsel (DoN). OGC, DoN can be contacted at:

Office of the General Counsel
Department of the Navy
1000 Navy Pentagon
Washington DC 20350-1000

Through the Freedom of Information Act, AFGE Local 2113 has obtained the following data describing filing requirements in past years.