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4. Electronic Filing of Financial Disclosure Reports May Increase Timeliness, Consistency, and Accuracy of the Financial Disclosure Program

 

Electronic Filing of Financial Disclosure Reports May Increase Timeliness, Consistency, and Accuracy of the Financial Disclosure Program

NASA Offers Low-Cost Electronic Financial Disclosure System to All Federal Agencies

NASA recently developed and implemented the Ethics Program Tracking System (EPTS) for all NASA SF-278 and OGE-450 filers. According to NASA, implementation of EPTS has been tremendously successful, producing a 98.7% electronic completion rate by users and saving hours of subsequent review time. In fact, EPTS has been so successful within NASA, that NASA has decided to offer this system to all Federal agencies on a very low cost-per-filer basis.

Some key advantages for Financial Disclosure Filers include:

• Filers can complete their forms at work or at home on a secure, web-based electronic system
• Filers have easy access to instructions and examples to help them complete the form
• Filers can save their work, logout during any part of the process, and log back in to continue filing at a later time
• No forms need to be mailed, filed, or otherwise physically handled. Filers can sign the form digitally then EPTS automatically routes it to the appropriate legal office for review
• The filer’s form is stored securely in the electronic system via PDF format for future reference
• Filers may access and print a PDF copy at any time

Some key advantages for Financial Disclosure Reviewers include:

• All forms are stored instantly in the system, so retrieval of a specific form is fast and easy and consistent with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) schedule
• Time-stamps occur automatically
• Mass e-mails can easily be sent and tracked
• Reporting is automated
• Cautionary letters are easy to send and are recorded immediately in the system
• Attachments can be uploaded to a filer's form
• Reviewers can note corrections on a filer's submission

To learn about additional features such as Customer Contact Center support and a Cautionary Letter Builder, visit NASA's Web site at http://epts.nssc.nasa.gov/ or contact Troy D. Taylor at 220-813-6830 or Steven A. Futch at 228-813-6240.

For information on another option for electronic filing please see the Department of Army.