In its first year of operation, more than 100 agencies adopted a new web-based system for collecting and reviewing public financial disclosure reports, the Form 278e, according to the Office of Government Ethics.
OGE was required to set up such a system, which it calls Integrity, by a congressional mandate, and by the end of this year every executive branch agency is expected to have registered filers in the system, OGE said in a blog posting.
It stressed that the system “is housed in a secure government cloud and has successfully undergone a full, independent security assessment. Both Integrity’s authentication provider and hosting environment have been assessed and approved under GSA’s FedRAMP cloud security program,” it said.
The system features “wizards” that ask questions about a filer’s specific financial interests, auto-complete for over 13,000 asset names, comment and endnote features, variable workflows that can be tailored to the needs of each agency, key notices and reminders, and web-based access, OGE said. For ethics officials who review financial disclosure reports, it can also compare a filer’s current report with a prior report to highlight changes in the filer’s financial interests.
OGE added: “Following the Presidential election in November 2016, OGE and agency ethics officials will be called upon to review and certify the financial disclosure reports of hundreds of Presidential appointees requiring the advice and consent of the Senate. Integrity will play a critical role ensuring that these reports are filed accurately, reviewed efficiently, and certified timely. By using Integrity this year, agencies are gaining the experience they will need to manage the high volume of nominee reports they will review during the presidential transitions starting in November 2016.”
