2023-18458. Submission of Information Collection for OMB Review; Comment Request; Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative and Quantitative Feedback on Agency Service Delivery

AGENCY:

Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

ACTION:

Notice of request for extension of OMB approval.

SUMMARY:

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation is requesting that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) extend approval, under the Paperwork Reduction Act, of the collection of information on qualitative and quantitative feedback on PBGC's service delivery (OMB Control Number 1212–0066; expires October 31, 2023). This notice informs the public of PBGC's request and solicits comments on the proposed information collection. This collection of information was developed as part of a Federal Government-wide effort to streamline the process for seeking feedback from the public on service delivery.

DATES:

Comments must be received on or before September 27, 2023 to be assured of consideration.

ADDRESSES:

Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of this notice to www.reginfo.gov/​public/​do/​PRAMain. Find this particular information collection by selecting “Currently under 30-day Review—Open for Public Comments” or by using the search function. All comments received will be posted without change to PBGC's website, http://www.pbgc.gov, including any personal information provided. Do not submit comments that include any personally identifiable information or confidential business information.

A copy of the request will be posted on PBGC's website at https://www.pbgc.gov/​prac/​laws-and-regulation/​federal-register-notices-open-for-comment. It may also be obtained without charge by writing to the Disclosure Division, [e-mail], Office of the General Counsel of PBGC, 445 12th Street SW, Washington, DC 20024–2101; or, calling 202–229–4040 during normal business hours. If you are deaf or hard of hearing or have a speech disability, please dial 7–1–1 to access telecommunications relay services.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Melissa Rifkin ( [e-mail]), Attorney, Regulatory Affairs Division, Office of the General Counsel, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, 445 12th Street SW, Washington, DC 20024–2101; 202–229–6563. (If you are deaf or hard of hearing, or have a speech disability, please dial 7–1–1 to access telecommunications relay services.)

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

This information collection activity will gather qualitative and quantitative customer and stakeholder feedback in an efficient, timely manner, in accordance with PBGC's commitment to improving service delivery. By qualitative feedback we mean information that provides useful insights on the public's perceptions and opinions. By quantitative feedback we mean numeric scores evaluating PBGC services and customer satisfaction using the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) methodology. This feedback provides insights into customer or stakeholder perceptions, experiences and expectations, provides early warnings of issues with service, and focuses attention on areas where changes in PBGC's communication with the public, in training of staff, or in operations might improve the delivery of products or services. These collections will allow for ongoing, collaborative and actionable communications between PBGC and its customers and stakeholders. These collections also allow feedback to contribute directly to the improvement of 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. Responses will be assessed to plan and inform efforts to improve or maintain the quality of service offered to the public. If this information were not collected, vital feedback from customers and stakeholders on PBGC's services would be unavailable.

PBGC only submits a collection for approval under this generic clearance 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;
• Except for information that will be included in PBGC's annual report, information gathered will be used only internally for general service improvement and program management purposes and is not intended for release outside of the agency;
• Information gathered will not be used for the purpose of substantially informing influential policy decisions; and
• Information from qualitative surveys gathered will yield qualitative results; the collections will not be designed or expected to yield statistically reliable results or be used as though the results are generalizable to the population of interest;
• Information from quantitative surveys will be based on statistical methods and will yield quantitative results, such as satisfaction scores that can be generalized to the population.

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, such as sexual behavior and attitudes, religious beliefs, and other matters that are commonly considered private.

Annually, over the next three years, PBGC estimates that it will conduct three activities involving about 2,430 respondents, each of whom will provide one response. The number of respondents will vary by activity: 80 for usability testing, 50 for focus groups (5 groups of 10 respondents), and 2,300 for customer satisfaction surveys.

PBGC estimates the annual burden of this collection of information as 755 hours: one hour per response for usability testing (total 80 hours); 2 hours per response for focus groups (total 100 hours); and 15 minutes per response for customer satisfaction surveys (total 575 hours). No cost burden to the public is anticipated.

The existing collection of information was approved under OMB control number 1212–0066 (expires October 31, 2023). On May 16, 2023, PBGC published in the Federal Register a notice at 88 FR 31289 informing the public of its intent to request an extension of this collection of information and solicited public comment. No comments were received. 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.

Issued in Washington, DC.

Stephanie Cibinic,

Deputy Assistant General Counsel for Regulatory Affairs, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.