99-15692. Agency Information Collection Activities: Emergency Consideration Request

[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 118 (Monday, June 21, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Page 33130]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-15692]



[[Page 33130]]

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SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION


Agency Information Collection Activities: Emergency Consideration 
Request

    In compliance with Pub. L. 104-13, the Paperwork Reduction Act of 
1995, SSA is providing notice of its information collections that 
require submission to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). SSA is 
requesting emergency consideration from OMB by June 30, 1999 of the 
information collection listed below.
    Request for Information--0960-NEW. The information collected on 
this form will be used by SSA's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) 
to conduct periodic eligibility reviews of beneficiaries residing in 
foreign countries. The form is designed to replace the current time-
consuming and expensive method of conducting these reviews by selecting 
sample cases and conducting in person interviews. The form will permit 
OIG to review all beneficiary residents of the foreign country under 
study, thereby narrowing the scope of the beneficiaries requiring in 
person visits to those who do not respond or to those who provide 
questionable evidence. The respondents are Social Security 
beneficiaries residing in foreign countries.
    Number of Respondents: 900.
    Frequency of Response: 1.
    Average Burden Per Response: 30 minutes.
    Estimated Annual Burden: 450 hours.
    SSA is currently in the process of clearing this information 
collection under the normal OMB approval procedures, and published the 
first Federal Register Notice on May 27, 1999. However, time 
constraints associated with the normal clearance process will not 
permit SSA to complete this time-sensitive and mission-critical 
objective as mandated by the Inspector General Act.
    SSA's OIG has responsibility for combating fraud, waste and abuse 
of SSA's programs. Accordingly, this information collection is designed 
to determine which beneficiaries residing in foreign countries pose the 
greatest risk of committing fraud against SSA programs. As a result, 
overpayments will be captured and corrected promptly, thereby 
minimizing the negative impact to SSA programs and the resulting public 
harm. To allow adequate time for review and planning purposes, 
responses to this form must be available to SSA's OIG prior to August 
25, 1999. For this survey of foreign eligibility reviews investigators 
are scheduled to arrive on site on August 30, 1999. Therefore, we are 
requesting emergency consideration from OMB of the information 
collection.
    You can obtain a copy of the collection instrument and/or OMB 
clearance package by calling the SSA Reports Clearance Officer on (410) 
965-4145, or by writing to him.
(SSA Address)
Social Security Administration, DCFAM, Attn: Frederick W. Brickenkamp, 
6401 Security Blvd., 1-A-21 Operations Bldg., Baltimore, MD 21235

    Dated: June 15, 1999.
Frederick W. Brickenkamp,
Reports Clearance Officer.
[FR Doc. 99-15692 Filed 6-18-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4190-29-U