The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. had asked the office to let it use the USDA online forms program. FDIC was the first to sign up to use the online service, said John Surina, director of Agriculture s Office of Ethics. Up to snuff The USDA online form meets the mandates of the Presidential Transition Act of 2000, which directed the independent ethics office to streamline, standardize and coordinate the financial disclosure process. The finance center does not charge agencies to sign on to the program if they already use the center s personal page as part of payroll services through the USDA center. The center, which serves as paymaster for more than 450,000 federal employees working at 100 agencies, hosts the Web site where the forms can be completed.
Users fill in the information, then print and mail the forms.
The center hosts a second Web page that lets workers whose agencies use the center s payroll services access their pay records. Each user receives a personal identification number, Surina said. For the ethics forms, users can log their disclosure information on the site throughout the year, then print and mail the forms when they are due, he said. SES employees and political appointees are required by law to regularly file financial disclosure statements. A link sends them to the center s secure server.