E8-28340. Proposed Renewal of Information Collection: OMB Control Number 1091-0001, Applicant Background Survey

AGENCY:

Office of Civil Rights.

ACTION:

Notice and request for comments.

SUMMARY:

In compliance with section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Office of Civil Rights, Office of the Secretary, Department of the Interior (DOI) announces the proposed extension of a public information collection and seeks public comments on the provisions thereof.

DATES:

Consideration will be given to all comments received by January 27, 2009.

ADDRESSES:

Send your written comments to the U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of the Secretary, Office of Civil Rights, Attn. John Burden, Deputy Director, 1849 C St. NW., MS 2607 MIB, Washington, DC 20240. Send any faxed comments to [phone], attn. John Burden. Comments may also be emailed to [e-mail].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Requests for additional information on this renewed information collection or its Applicant Background Survey Form should be directed to U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of the Secretary, Office of Civil Rights, Attn. John Burden, Deputy Director, 1849 C St. NW., MS 2607 MIB, Washington, DC 20240. Before including your address, phone number, email address, or other personal identifying information in your comment, you should be aware that your entire comment—including your personal identifying information—may be made publicly available at any time. While you can ask us in your comment to withhold your personal identifying information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Abstract

DOI is below parity with the Relevant Civilian Labor Force representation for many mission critical occupations. The Department's Strategic Human Capital management Plan identifies the job skills that will be needed in its current and future workforce. The job skills it will need are dispersed throughout its eight bureaus and include, among others, making visitors welcome to various facilities, such as parks and refuges, processing permits for a wide variety of uses of the public lands, collecting royalties for minerals extracted from the public lands, rounding-up and adopting-out wild horses and burros found in the west, protecting archeological and cultural resources of the public lands, and enforcing criminal laws of the United States. As a result of this broad spectrum of duties and services, the Department touches the lives of most Americans.

The people who deal with the Department bring with them a wide variety of backgrounds, cultures, and experiences. A diverse workforce enables the Department to provide a measure of understanding to its customers by relating to the diverse background of those customers. By including employees of all backgrounds, all DOI employees gain a measure of knowledge, background, experience, and comfort in serving all of the Department's customers.

In order to determine if there are barriers in our recruitment and selection processes, DOI must track the demographic groups that apply for its jobs. There is no other statistically valid method to make these determinations, and no source of this information other than directly from applicants. The data collected is not provided to selecting officials and plays no part in the merit staffing or the selection processes. The data collected will be used in summary form to determine trends covering the demographic make-up of applicant pools and job selections within a given occupation or organizational group. The records of those applicants not selected are destroyed in accordance with DOI's records management procedures.

II. Data

(1) Title: Applicant Background Survey.

OMB Control Number: 1091-0001.

Current Expiration Date: April 30, 2009.

Type of Review: Information Collection Renewal.

Affected Entities: Applicants for DOI jobs.

Estimated annual number of respondents: 13433.

Frequency of Response: Once per job application.

(2) Annual reporting and record keeping burden: Average reporting burden per application: 5 minutes.

Total annual reporting: 1119 hours.

(3) Description of the need and use of the information: This information is required to obtain the source of recruitment, ethnicity, race, and disability data on job applicants to determine if the recruitment is effectively reaching all aspects of relevant labor pools and to determine if there are proportionate acceptance rates at various stages of the recruitment process. Response is optional. The information is used for evaluating recruitment only, and plays no part in the selection of who is hired.

III. Request for Comments

Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of the agency, including whether the information shall have practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the proposed information collection; (c) ways to enhance the quality, utility and clarity of the information to be collected; and (d) ways to minimize the burden of the information collection on respondents, including through the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of information technology.

Burden means the total time, effort, or financial resources expended by persons to generate, maintain, retain, disclose or provide information to or for a federal agency. This includes the time needed to review instructions; to develop, acquire, install and utilize technology and systems for the purpose of collecting, validating and verifying information, processing and maintaining information, and disclosing and providing information; to train personnel and to be able to respond to a collection of information, to search data sources, to complete and review the collection of information, and to transmit or otherwise disclose the information.

All written comments will be available for public inspection in the Main Interior Building, 1849 C Street, NW., Washington, DC during normal business hours, excluding legal holidays. For an appointment to inspect comments, please contact John Burden by telephone on [phone], or by e-mail at [e-mail]. A valid picture identification is required for entry into the Department of the Interior.

Dated: November 14, 2008.

Sharon Eller,

Director, Office of Civil Rights, Office of the Secretary.