2016-31148. Agency Information Collection Activities: Information Collection Renewal; Comment Request; 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.”

DATES:

Comments must be submitted on or before February 27, 2017.

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] or, for persons who are deaf or hard of hearing, TTY, [phone]. Upon arrival, visitors will be required to present valid government-issued photo identification and 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 include any information in your comment or supporting materials that you consider confidential or inappropriate for public disclosure.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Shaquita Merritt, OCC Clearance Officer, [phone] or, 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 OMB for each collection of information that they conduct or sponsor. The term “collection of information” is defined in 44 U.S.C. 3502(3) and 5 CFR 1320.3(c) and includes 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 title 44 requires Federal agencies to publish 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 this notice of the renewal of the following information collection:

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

OMB Control No.: 1557-0248.

Type of Review: Regular.

Affected Public: Businesses or other for-profit.

Frequency of Response: On occasion.

Burden Estimate:

Number of Respondents: 3,000.

Total Annual Burden: 2,350.

Description: This generic information collection request (ICR) provides a means to solicit qualitative customer and stakeholder feedback in an efficient, 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 survey or quantitative results that can be attributed to the population of study. This 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. It also enables ongoing, collaborative, and actionable communications between the OCC, and its customers and stakeholders, while also utilizing feedback to improve program management.

Soliciting feedback targets areas such as timeliness, appropriateness, accuracy of information, courtesy, efficiency of service delivery, and resolution of issues related to service delivery. The responses are used to inform and plan efforts to improve or maintain the quality of service offered to the public. If the OCC does not collect this information, it will not have access to vital feedback from customers and stakeholders.

Under this generic ICR, the OCC will submit a specific information collection for approval only if the collection meets the following conditions:

• It is voluntary;
• It imposes a low burden on respondents (based on considerations of total burden hours, total number of respondents, or burden-hours per respondent) and a low cost on both respondents and the Federal government;
• It is non-controversial and does not raise issues of concern to other Federal agencies;
• It is targeted to solicit opinions from respondents who have experience with the program or will have such experience in the near future;
• It includes personally identifiable information (PII) only to the extent necessary, and the OCC does not retain the PII ^[1] ;

• It gathers information intended to be used internally only for general service improvement and program management purposes and not intended for release outside of the OCC (if released, the OCC must indicate the qualitative nature of the information);
• It does not gather information to be used for the purpose of substantially informing influential policy decisions; and
• It gathers information that will yield qualitative information and will not be designed or expected to yield statistically reliable results or used to reach general conclusions about the population of study.

Feedback collected provides useful information, but it does not yield data that can be attributed to the overall population. This type of generic clearance for qualitative information will not be used for quantitative information collections.

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

Comments: 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: December 20, 2016.

Karen Solomon,

Deputy Chief Counsel, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

Footnotes

1.  The OCC may retain PII only in limited circumstances, and if it does so, the OCC must comply with applicable requirements, restrictions, and prohibitions of the Privacy Act and other privacy and confidentiality laws that govern the collection, retention, use, and/or disclosure of such PII.