2019-21192. Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the Office of Management and Budget for Review and Approval; Comment Request; Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service Delivery

AGENCY:

Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS).

ACTION:

Notice of information collection; request for comment.

SUMMARY:

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, CNCS is proposing to renew an information collection.

DATES:

Written comments must be submitted to the individual and office listed in the ADDRESSES section by November 29, 2019.

ADDRESSES:

You may submit comments, identified by the title of the information collection activity, by any of the following methods:

(1) By mail sent to: Corporation for National and Community Service; Attention Amy Borgstrom; 250 E Street SW, Washington, DC 20525.

(2) By hand delivery or by courier to the CNCS mailroom at the address above between 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday, except federal holidays.

(3) Electronically through www.regulations.gov.

Comments submitted in response to this Notice will be made available to the public through www.regulations.gov. For this reason, please do not include in your comments information of a confidential nature, such as sensitive personal information or proprietary information. If you send an email comment, your email address will be automatically captured and included as part of the comment that is placed in the public docket and made available on the internet. Please note that responses to this public comment request containing any routine notice about the confidentiality of the communication will be treated as public comments that may be made available to the public notwithstanding the inclusion of the routine notice.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Amy Borgstrom by email at [e-mail] or by phone at 202-606-6930.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

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

OMB Control Number: 3045-0137. Type of Review: Renewal.

Respondents/Affected Public: Individuals and Households.

Total Estimated Number of Annual Responses: 15,000.

Total Estimated Number of Annual Burden Hours: 2,500.

Abstract: The proposed information collection activity provides a means to elicit qualitative customer and stakeholder feedback in an efficient, timely manner. By qualitative feedback we mean information that provides useful insights on perceptions and opinions but are not statistical surveys that yield quantitative results that can be generalized to the population of study. This feedback will provide insights into customer or stakeholder perceptions, experiences and expectations, provide an early warning of issues with service, or focus attention on areas where communication, training or changes in operations might improve delivery of products or services. These collections will allow for ongoing, collaborative, and actionable communications between the agency and its customers and stakeholders. It will also allow feedback to contribute directly to the improvement of program management.

The solicitation of feedback will target 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 is not collected, vital feedback from customers and stakeholders on the agency's services will be unavailable.

CNCS will only submit a collection for approval under this generic clearance if the collection is:

• Voluntary;
• Low-burden for respondents (based on considerations of total burden hours, total number of respondents, or burden-hours per respondent) and low-cost for both the respondents and the federal government;
• Non-controversial and does not raise issues of concern to other federal agencies;
• 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;
• Not collecting personally-identifiable information (PII) except to the extent necessary and that is not retained;
• Used only internally for general service improvement and program management purposes and is not intended for release outside of the agency;
• Not used for the purpose of substantially informing influential policy decisions;
• Focused on qualitative information; the collections will not be designed or expected to yield statistically reliable results or used as though the results are generalizable to the population of study.

Comments submitted in response to this notice will be summarized and/or included in the request for OMB approval. Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, including whether the information shall have practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the collection of information; (c) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; (d) ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information 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. Burden means the total time, effort, or financial resources expended by persons to generate, maintain, retain, disclose or provide information to or for a federal agency. This includes the time needed to review instructions; to develop, acquire, install, and utilize technology and systems for the purpose of collecting, validating and verifying information, processing and maintaining information, and disclosing and providing information; to train personnel and to be able to respond to a collection of information, to search data sources, to complete and review the collection of information; and to transmit or otherwise disclose the information. All written comments will be available for public inspection on regulations.gov.

Dated: September 25, 2019.

Amy Borgstrom,

Associate Director of Policy.