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Financial Disclosure: Implementation of Statute Governing House and Legislative Agency Personnel

GGD-94-76 Published: Mar 16, 1994. Publicly Released: Mar 16, 1994.
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Highlights

Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO provided information on the House of Representatives' progress in implementing the Ethics in Government Act of 1978.

Recommendations

Matter for Congressional Consideration

Matter Status Comments
The House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct should revise the Committee's procedures and disclosure report form to comply with statutory provisions requiring final reviewing officials to sign the reports and provide a positive assurance opinion.
Closed – Implemented
The Committee now stamps all financial disclosure reports with a format that provides a box for the reviewing official's signature and provides positive statement of assurance that the report complies with the appropriate laws and regulations.
The House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct may wish to consider ways in which financial disclosure reports could be used more extensively. For example, the Committee could consider supplementing its review of legislative employee statements by providing for a review by someone in the filer's supervisory chain.
Closed – Not Implemented
The Chief Counsel for the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct said the Committee does not plan to implement the recommendation. The Counsel does not believe it is necessary to require an official in a House or legislative employee's chain of command to review the financial disclosure report. The Counsel believes the current procedures with the Committee staff reviewing all the reports are adequate.

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Topics

Conflict of interestsCongressional employeesDisclosure lawFinancial disclosurePolitical candidatesLegislative bodiesPublic officialsElectionsData errorsCompensation