2014-11398. Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Information Collection; Submission for OMB Review; Renewal of Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service Delivery

AGENCY:

Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Treasury.

ACTION:

Notice and request for comments.

SUMMARY:

The OCC, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on a continuing information collection, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA).

In accordance with the requirements of the PRA, the OCC may not conduct or sponsor, and the respondent is not required to respond to, an information collection unless it displays a currently valid Office of Management and Budget (OMB) control number.

The OCC is soliciting comment concerning the renewal of its information collection titled, “Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service Delivery.” The OCC also is giving notice that it has sent the collection to OMB for review.

DATES:

Comments must be submitted on or before June 16, 2014.

ADDRESSES:

Because paper mail in the Washington, DC area and at the OCC is subject to delay, commenters are encouraged to submit comments by email if possible. Comments may be sent to: Legislative and Regulatory Activities Division, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Attention: 1557-0248, 400 7th Street SW., Suite 3E-218, Mail Stop 9W-11, Washington, DC 20219. In addition, comments may be sent by fax to [phone] or by electronic mail to [e-mail]. You may personally inspect and photocopy comments at the OCC, 400 7th Street SW., Washington, DC 20219. For security reasons, the OCC requires that visitors make an appointment to inspect comments. You may do so by calling [phone]. Upon arrival, visitors will be required to present valid government-issued photo identification and to submit to security screening in order to inspect and photocopy comments.

All comments received, including attachments and other supporting materials, are part of the public record and subject to public disclosure. Do not enclose any information in your comment or supporting materials that you consider confidential or inappropriate for public disclosure.

Additionally, please send a copy of your comments by mail to: OCC Desk Officer, 1557-0248, U.S. Office of Management and Budget, 725 17th Street NW., #10235, Washington, DC 20503, or by email to: oira [e-mail].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Johnny Vilela or Mary H. Gottlieb, OCC Clearance Officers, [phone], for persons who are deaf or hard of hearing, TTY, [phone], Legislative and Regulatory Activities Division, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, 400 7th Street SW., Suite 3E-218, Mail Stop 9W-11, Washington, DC 20219.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Under the PRA (44 U.S.C. 3501-3520), Federal agencies must obtain approval from the OMB for each collection of information they conduct or sponsor. “Collection of information” is defined in 44 U.S.C. 3502(3) and 5 CFR 1320.3(c) to include agency requests or requirements that members of the public submit reports, keep records, or provide information to a third party. Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the PRA (44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)) requires Federal agencies to provide a 60-day notice in the Federal Register concerning each proposed collection of information, including each proposed extension of an existing collection of information, before submitting the collection to OMB for approval. To comply with this requirement, the OCC is publishing notice of the proposed collection of information set forth in this document.

The OCC is proposing to extend OMB approval of the following information collection:

Title: Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service Delivery.

OMB Control No.: 1557-0248.

Description: The information collection activity provides a means to garner qualitative customer and stakeholder feedback in an efficient and timely manner, in accordance with the Federal government's commitment to improving service delivery. Qualitative feedback is information that provides useful insights on perceptions and opinions, but does not include statistical surveys or quantitative results that can be attributed to the population of study. Qualitative feedback provides insights into customer or stakeholder perceptions, experiences, and expectations; provides an early warning of issues with service; and/or focuses attention on areas where communication, training, or changes in operations might improve delivery of products or services. Collections of qualitative feedback allow for ongoing, collaborative, and actionable communications between the OCC, its customers, and stakeholdersm and can be useful in improving program management.

The solicitation of feedback targets areas such as timeliness, appropriateness, accuracy of information, courtesy, efficiency of service delivery, and resolution of issues with service delivery. The OCC uses the information generated through the responses to inform and plan efforts to improve or maintain the quality of service offered to the public. If this information is not collected, the OCC will not have access to vital feedback from customers and stakeholders.

The OCC will submit a collection for approval under this generic clearance only if it meets the following conditions:

• The collections are voluntary;
• The collections are low-burden for respondents (based on considerations of total burden hours, total number of respondents, or burden-hours per respondent) and are low-cost for both the respondents and the Federal Government;
• The collections are non-controversial and do not raise issues of concern to other Federal agencies;
• Any collection is targeted to the solicitation of opinions from respondents who have experience with the program or may have experience with the program in the near future;
• Personally identifiable information (PII) is collected only to the extent necessary and is not retained;
• Information gathered is intended to be used only internally for general service improvement and program management purposes and is not intended for release outside of the agency (if released, the agency must indicate the qualitative nature of the information);
• Information gathered will not be used for the purpose of substantially informing influential policy decisions; and
• Information gathered will yield qualitative information, meaning that the collections will not be designed or expected to yield statistically reliable results or used to reach general conclusions about the population of study.

Feedback collected under this generic clearance provides useful information, but it does not yield data that can be attributed to the overall population. This generic clearance for qualitative information will not be used for quantitative information collections that are designed to yield reliably actionable results, such as monitoring trends over time or documenting program performance. Such data uses require more rigorous designs to identify: the target population to which generalizations will be made, the sampling frame, the sample design (including stratification and clustering), the precision requirements or power calculations that justify the proposed sample size, the expected response rate, methods for assessing potential non-response bias, the protocols for data collection, and any testing procedures that were or will be undertaken prior to conducting the study. Depending on the degree of influence the results are likely to have, such collections may still be eligible for submission for other generic mechanisms designed to yield quantitative results.

As a general matter, these information collections will not result in any new system of records containing privacy information and will not ask questions of a sensitive nature.

The OCC used this collection twice in 2013 to obtain feedback from vendors following OCC outreach sessions. The collection allowed OCC business units to solicit feedback from participants at outreach events, access the participants' experiences, and adjust future outreach events. Specifically, it allowed the OCC to generate Congressional reports on the “successes achieved and challenges faced by the agency in operating minority and women outreach programs.” 12 U.S.C. 5452(e).

Type of Review: Regular review.

OMB Control No.: 1557-0248.

Type of Review: Regular review.

Affected Public: Businesses or other for-profit.

Burden Estimate:

 Average Expected Annual Number of Activities: 3.

 Average Number of Respondents per Activity: 3,000.

 Total Annual Responses: 9,000.

 Frequency of Response: Once per request.

 Average Minutes per Response: 10.

 Total Annual Burden Hours: 1,500.

Comments submitted in response to this notice will be summarized and included in the request for OMB approval. All comments will become a matter of public record. Comments are invited on:

(a) Whether the collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the OCC, including whether the information has practical utility;

(b) The accuracy of the OCC's estimate of the burden of the information collection;

(c) Ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected;

(d) Ways to minimize the burden of the collection on respondents, including through the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of information technology; and

(e) Estimates of capital or start-up costs and costs of operation, maintenance, and purchase of services to provide information.

Dated: May 12, 2014.

Stuart E. Feldstein,

Director, Legislative and Regulatory Activities Division.