2018-05842. Agency Information Collection Activities; DOI Programmatic Clearance for Customer Satisfaction Surveys

AGENCY:

Office of the Secretary, Interior.

ACTION:

Notice of information collection; request for comment.

SUMMARY:

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, we, the Office of the Secretary are proposing to renew an information collection.

DATES:

Interested persons are invited to submit comments on or before May 21, 2018.

ADDRESSES:

Send your comments on this information collection request (ICR) by mail to the Jeffrey Parrillo, 1849 C Street NW, Washington, DC 20240; or by email to [e-mail]. Please reference OMB Control Number 1090-0011 in the subject line of your comments.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

To request additional information about this ICR, contact Jeffrey Parrillo by email at [e-mail], or by telephone at 202-208-7072.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, we provide the general public and other Federal agencies with an opportunity to comment on new, proposed, revised, and continuing collections of information. This helps us assess the impact of our information collection requirements and minimize the public's reporting burden. It also helps the public understand our information collection requirements and provide the requested data in the desired format.

We are soliciting comments on the proposed ICR that is described below. We are especially interested in public comment addressing the following issues: (1) Is the collection necessary to the proper functions of the Office of the Secretary; (2) will this information be processed and used in a timely manner; (3) is the estimate of burden accurate; (4) how might the Office of the Secretary enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and (5) how might the Office of the Secretary minimize the burden of this collection on the respondents, including through the use of information technology.

Comments that you submit in response to this notice are a matter of public record. We will include or summarize each comment in our request to OMB to approve this ICR. 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.

Abstract: The Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA) (Pub. L. 103-62) requires agencies to “improve Federal program effectiveness and public accountability by promoting a new focus on results, service quality, and customer satisfaction.” To fulfill this responsibility, DOI bureaus and offices must collect data from their respective user groups to better understand the needs and desires of the public and to respond accordingly. Executive Order 12862 “Setting Customer Service Standards” also requires all executive departments to “survey customers to determine . . . their level of satisfaction with existing services.” We use customer satisfaction surveys to help us fulfill our responsibilities to provide excellence in government by proactively consulting with those we serve. This programmatic clearance provides an expedited approval process for DOI bureaus and offices to conduct customer research through external surveys such as questionnaires and comment cards.

The proposed renewal covers all of the organizational units and bureaus in DOI. Information obtained from customers by bureaus and offices will be provided voluntarily. No one survey will cover all the topic areas; rather, these topic areas serve as a guide within which the bureaus and offices will develop questions. Questions may be asked in languages other than English (e.g., Spanish) where appropriate. Topic areas include:

(1) Delivery, quality and value of products, information, and services. Respondents may be asked for feedback regarding the following attributes of the information, service, and products provided:

(a) Timeliness.

(b) Consistency.

(c) Accuracy.

(d) Ease of Use and Usefulness.

(e) Ease of Information Access.

(f) Helpfulness.

(g) Quality.

(h) Value for fee paid for information/product/service.

(2) Management practices. This area covers questions relating to how well customers are satisfied with DOI management practices and processes, what improvements they might make to specific processes, and whether or not they feel specific issues were addressed and reconciled in a timely, courteous, and responsive manner.

(3) Mission management. We will ask customers to provide satisfaction data related to DOI's ability to protect, conserve, provide access to, provide scientific data about, and preserve natural, cultural, and recreational resources that we manage, and how well we are carrying out our trust responsibilities to American Indians.

(4) Rules, regulations, policies. This area focuses on obtaining feedback from customers regarding fairness, adequacy, and consistency in enforcing rules, regulations, and policies for which DOI is responsible. It will also help us understand public awareness of rules and regulations and whether or not they are explained in a clear and understandable manner.

(5) Interactions with DOI Personnel and Contractors. Questions will range from timeliness and quality of interactions to skill level of staff providing the assistance, as well as their courtesy and responsiveness during the interaction.

(6) General demographics. Some general demographics may be gathered to augment satisfaction questions so that we can better understand the customer and improve how we serve that customer. We may ask customers how many times they have used a service, visited a facility within a specific timeframe, their ethnic group, or their race.

All requests to collect information under the auspices of this proposed renewal will be carefully evaluated to ensure consistency with the intent, requirements, and boundaries of this programmatic clearance. Interior's Office of Policy Analysis will conduct an administrative and technical review of each specific request in order to ensure statistical validity and soundness. All information collections are required to be designed and deployed based upon acceptable statistical practices and sampling methodologies, and procedures that account for and minimize non-response bias, in order to obtain consistent, valid data and statistics that are representative of the target populations.

Title of Collection: DOI Programmatic Clearance for Customer Satisfaction Surveys.

OMB Control Number: 1040-0001.

Form Number: None.

Type of Review: Extension of a currently approved collection.

Respondents/Affected Public: DOI customers. We define customers as anyone who uses DOI resources, products, or services. This includes internal customers (anyone within DOI) as well as external customers (e.g., the American public, representatives of the private sector, academia, other government agencies). Depending upon their role in specific situations and interactions, citizens and DOI stakeholders and partners may also be considered customers. We define stakeholders to mean groups or individuals who have an expressed interest in and who seek to influence the present and future state of DOI's resources, products, and services. Partners are those groups, individuals, and agencies who are formally engaged in helping DOI accomplish its mission.

Total Estimated Number of Annual Respondents: 120,000. We estimate approximately 60,000 respondents will submit DOI customer satisfaction surveys and 60,000 will submit comment cards.

Total Estimated Number of Annual Responses: 120,000.

Estimated Completion Time per Response: 15 minutes for a customer survey; 3 minutes for a comment card.

Total Estimated Number of Annual Burden Hours: 18,000.

Respondent's Obligation: Voluntary.

Frequency of Collection: On occasion.

Total Estimated Annual Nonhour Burden Cost: None.

An agency may not conduct or sponsor and a person is not required to respond to a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number.

The authority for this action is the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.).

Benjamin Simon,

Chief DOI Economist.