Staff was presented with the issue of accepting electronic signatures on reports filed with our office, including but not limited to personal financial disclosure reports and complimentary admission disclosures that require a certification by the agency head and the signature of the person who received the admission. With respect to the complimentary admission form, the question was raised because of the need for an employee's signature when that employee is working remotely.
Staff researched the issue and analyzed the provision in La. R.S. 9:2618 that allows agencies to accept electronic records and signatures. (See memo attached.) The memo includes a policy adopted by the Louisiana Department of Health to accept documents with electronic signatures.
The Board instructed staff to draft a proposed policy for acceptance of electronic signatures. Staff anticipates providing the document to Board members prior the December meeting for consideration.
The Board has existing rules regarding the acceptance of electronically filed reports in Chapter 18 of the Rules for the Board of Ethics. Section 1801B requires a filer to submit an affidavit to obtain a username and password to electronically file a report.
The question has now been raised about the acceptance of reports that are not filed through the Board's electronic filing system, but are scanned and sent to us where the signature is made using a third-party software (eg. docusign) to sign the document. This allows the user to complete and file the form at their computer without the necessity of printing the document, signing it, and then scanning a copy of it to upload to file the report.
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