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[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 16 (Monday, January 27, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 8215-8221]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2025-01756]

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GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION

[OMB Control No. 3090-0329; Docket No. 2025-0001; Sequence No. 5]

Information Collection; Overseas Employment Service Agreement 
(GSA Form 5040)

AGENCY: Office of Human Resource Management, Strategic Planning, 
Policy, and Training Division, General Services Administration (GSA).

ACTION: Notice; request for comments.

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SUMMARY: Under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act, the 
Regulatory Secretariat Division will be submitting to the Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) a request to review and approve a revision 
to an existing information collection requirement.

DATES: Submit comments on or before March 28, 2025.

ADDRESSES: Submit comments identified by Information Collection 3090-
0329; ``Overseas Employment Service Agreement (GSA Form 5040)'' to: 
https://www.regulations.gov. Submit comments via the Federal 
eRulemaking portal by searching for ``Information Collection 3090-0329; 
Overseas Employment Service Agreement (GSA Form 5040).'' Select the 
link ``Submit a Comment'' that corresponds with ``Information 
Collection 3090-0329; Overseas Employment Service Agreement (GSA Form 
5040).'' Follow the instructions provided at the ``Submit a Comment'' 
screen. Please include your name, company name (if any), and 
``Information Collection 3090-0329; Overseas Employment Service 
Agreement (GSA Form 5040)'' on your attached document. If your comment 
cannot be submitted using https://www.regulations.gov, call or email 
the points of contact in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section of 
this document for alternate instructions.
    Instructions: Please submit comments only and cite ``Information 
Collection 3090-0329; Overseas Employment Service Agreement (GSA Form 
5040),'' in all correspondence related to this collection. Comments 
received generally will be posted without change to http://www.regulations.gov, including any personal and/or business 
confidential information provided. To confirm receipt of your 
comment(s), please

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check www.regulations.gov, approximately two-to-three days after 
submission to verify posting.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Colin C. Bennett, Human Resources 
Specialist, Office of Human Resources Management, Strategic Planning, 
Policy, and Training Division, at telephone 240-418-6822 or via email 
to [email protected] for clarification of content.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

A. Purpose

    Federal leave law (5 U.S.C. 6304(b) and 6305) requires that 
employees be on defined, time-limited, foreign tours of duty as well as 
have agency agreements in place for return transportation. The 
Department of State Standardized Regulations (DSSR) covering living 
quarters allowance (5 U.S.C. 5923(a)(2) and DSSR 031.12) also require 
documented tours of duty with an agency commitment for return 
transportation. At GSA, the overseas tour of duty and permanent change 
of station commitments and requirements are contained within a standard 
agency form, GSA Form 5040, ``Overseas Employment and Service 
Agreement''. As part of the Federal Travel Regulations (FTR) (44 CFR 
part 302), when an agency pays for permanent change of station the 
employee must commit to a period of return agency service (at least one 
year). This form also contains clauses that serve to create an 
enforceable service contract under the FTR.
    This form was first developed during 2022 and was published for 
public comment on February 14, 2023 (88 FR 9521) and then on June 8, 
2023 (88 FR 37542). Our agency has successfully used this form to 
determine leave benefits and foreign allowance eligibility, advise 
employees of their rights and responsibilities, and to help ensure that 
the human resources and payroll accounting records are accurate before, 
during and after the permanent change of station.
    By using the form, our agency was able to develop a few ideas about 
how to improve the form, without impacting the amount of time the form 
takes to fill out by job candidates or current Federal employees. For 
example, we propose to modify lines 6 and 11 to clarify how to 
determine the Duty Station Location Code, which is a numeric value 
assigned by the Office of Personnel Management. For item 13, we propose 
to reference a new GSA agency form, Form 5047, ``Actual Place of 
Residence Determination'', which must be completed at the same time. In 
item 15, we propose to clarify foreign allowances and leave benefits 
that GSA currently allows, due to agency administrative order number 
9592. For item 16, the financial liability disclosures, we have added 
additional disclosure statements taken from a different form, Form 
5042, ``Home Leave and Renewal Agreement Travel'', which was 
subsequently developed during 2023 and 2024 and better implements 
certain language required by the Federal Travel Regulations. For item 
17, we propose to add a new table which lists the name of family 
dependents, which should help the agency better arrange for each 
family's foreign travel and relocation.
    While we do not believe that these small changes and improvements 
will create any additional burden on job candidates or agency 
employees, we encourage feedback on the form. We are also receptive to 
ideas on certain data elements or form questions that are currently 
missing but should be included in the form.

B. Annual Reporting Burden

    Respondents: 25 per year.
    Responses per Respondent: 1.
    Total Annual Responses: 25.
    Hours per Response: 8.
    Total Burden Hours: 200.

C. Public Comments

    Public comments are solicited to help GSA understand whether or not 
the modified and improved GSA Form 5040 will help to streamline the 
current leave and allowance eligibility review and approval process. 
The agency would also like to know: (a) whether this collection of the 
additional information (such as list of dependents) is necessary, (b) 
whether it will have practical utility, (c) whether our estimate of the 
public burden of this collection of information is accurate (and based 
on valid assumptions and methodology), (d) whether or not there are 
ways to enhance the new form's utility and clarity of the information 
to be collected, and (e) whether or not there might be ways in to 
minimize the data collection burden through the use of information 
technology.
    Obtaining Copies of Proposals: We have provided a copy of the 
proposed new draft GSA Form 5040 at the end of this notice below the 
signature block. A copy of the proposed draft form can alternatively be 
obtained through GSA's Regulatory Secretariat Division by calling 202-
501-4755 or emailing [email protected]. Please cite OMB Control No. 
3090-0329, Student Loan Repayment Application and Service Agreement 
(GSA Form 5040), in all correspondence.

Lois Mandell,
Director, Regulatory Secretariat Division, General Services 
Administration.
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[FR Doc. 2025-01756 Filed 1-24-25; 8:45 am]
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