OMB generic clr - ExtReq2006v1.wpd

Supporting Statement

Request for Extension of Generic Clearance of NCJRS Customer Satisfaction Surveys

A. Justification

1. Circumstances of Information Collection

This is a request for a three year extension of the Generic Clearance of NCJRS Customer Satisfaction Surveys. Administered by the Office of Justice Programs, (OJP) the National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS) provides information clearinghouse services for the Department of Justice and Executive Office Agencies. NIJ is directed under its authorizing legislation, Crime Control and Safe Streets Act, Title 42, Chapter 46, Section 3722.(c)(3) to evaluate the effectiveness of projects or programs carried out..” The NCJRS program and OJP agencies provide services directly to the public, and are mandated by E.O. 12862, Title 3, Section 1.(c) to “survey customers to determine the kind and quality of services they want and their level of satisfaction with existing services.” In response to these directives OJP, NCJRS and NCJRS Partner Agencies will conduct a number of surveys designed to determine the kind and quality of information and services their customers want and expect, level of satisfaction with products, types of services or enhancements, and technological capabilities of their customers. These agencies include The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Office, Executive Office for Weed and Seed (EOWS), National Institute of Corrections (NIC), National Institute of Justice (NIJ), Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), Office for Victims of Crime (OVC), and Office on Violence Against Women (OVW). Surveys will also be conducted by the National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS) on behalf of all the agencies combined. These surveys will be limited to data collections that solicit strictly voluntary opinions, and will not collect information which is required or regulated. As the agencies have converted a large number of hard-copy publications to electronic versions, and will continue to do so over the next three years, constituent feedback is vital to aid the development of appropriate electronic documents and web-based tools. The Agencies intend to use an increasing number of electronic / web-based surveys and fewer hard-copy surveys. The electronic web-based surveys will elicit customer feedback on communications content, formats/layout, appropriateness of topics, understandability, to find out how the information presented will be used, and the timeliness of the information.

Examples of the surveys that agencies will use, as approved under the previous Generic Clearance are included as items with Agency forms numbers NCJ-CR-01-01 - NCJ-CR-01-06. These forms solicit general user satisfaction with NCJRS services, products, response center operations and solicit feedback regarding specific Office of Justice Programs communication products, desired methods of receipt, and customer reaction to the agency websites. Also included is a list of Question 1 Alternates for response center customer service survey form NCJ-CR-01-002.

2. Purpose and Use of Information

The agencies will conduct various customer satisfaction survey activities, mostly electronic surveys, a focus group meeting, and a hard-copy surveys to meet the requirements of E.O. 12862, to provide improved services, and to enhance their strategic planning capabilities. The information collected will be used by the agencies to determine where and to what extent services need to be improved or developed. These surveys may lead to policy changes to enhance or streamline the agencies’ overall operations and modifications of their strategic planning objectives and/or customer service standards.

We will conduct surveys primarily via the World Wide Web, also by mail, phone, and email. OJP will be seeking customer feedback on issues which include:

∙ level of satisfaction with current services and/or products;

∙ specific evaluations of current services and/or products;

∙ usage of current services and/or products;

∙ technological capabilities of customers; and

∙ customer preferences, such as document formats and notification procedures.

The above issues will help agencies identify and assess areas where improvements should occur and the degree to which these improvements are needed. In order to better understand their constituencies, the agencies may also request some customer identification information, such as state/local address and organizational affiliation.

Examples of the surveys that agencies will use, as approved under the previous Generic Clearance are included as items with Agency forms numbers NCJ-CR-01-00 - NCJ-CR-01-07.

Also included is a list of Question 1 Alternates for response center customer service survey form.

It is anticipated that additional forms may be developed to obtain user input regarding specific products, in particular, new electronic products which agencies will be producing. However the forms themselves will change only slightly to indicate the new products. The alternate questions enable focus on different aspects of NCJRS customer response service.

3. Use of Information Technology

Efforts to incorporate the use of electronic, automated, or other mechanical collection of information will be considered for each survey conducted under this generic clearance in order to aid in the reduction of burden on the public. Information will be gathered from questionnaires delivered by mail, phone, email, and the World Wide Web. To gather information on the condition of specific hard-copy publications, videos, or other such products, enclosing a hardcopy survey with the product, which is to be returned by the customer is generally the most cost-efficient and direct way to gather particular survey information. However, in an effort to conform to GPEA and reduce the public paperwork burden gathering user satisfaction information about Response Center (Call Center) operations has been automated through a system which presents audio surveys and records responders comments/inputs. Also, as the OJP agencies have converted most of their publications/communications to electronic formats, more of the survey mechanisms will be in electronic formats as well, so there are far more web and phone surveys (6) planned than mail-out surveys (1).

4. Efforts to Identify Duplication

Each OJP agency’s survey representative will review and approve each survey to be conducted for that agency. This process will ensure that each survey is unique, thereby preventing duplication.

5. Involvement of Small Entities

The collection of this information involves small entities only to the extent that employees of such entities may subscribe to a membership list, or may have requested a product or service from an agency. As small entities staff may be registered users or may request NCJRS products, they may be selected as part of random sampling for any of the mail-out or response center surveys. As they use the World Wide Web, they may have the opportunity to choose to participate in web surveys. Except for state, local, or national associations whose missions are related to criminal/juvenile justice, victimology, or other specific mission areas of the NCJRS partner agencies, the partner agencies do not specifically solicit membership from any particular small entities, nor are they considered to be a primary user group. Small entities will not be involved in collecting or analyzing the information since these functions will be performed by the contractor.

6. Consequences if Information Collected Less Frequently

Without this information collection, agencies would not be able to determine the kind and quality of service and products customers want. Constituency levels of satisfaction with agency services or information products would be unknown, thus severely limiting agencies’ abilities to determine ways to improve information services and products. Additionally, agencies would not be able to carry out the requirements of the E.O. 12862 and ensure that customer input is part of their Strategic Planning Effort (GPRA). If agencies are unable to gather feedback, then they will be unable to properly assess customer response to new communication methods; a situation which would render communication program planners at extreme disadvantage, and likely unable to meet new electronic dissemination and E-Gov goals.

7. Consistency with the Guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.5(d)(2)

It is expected that there will be situations under this Generic Clearance Request in which respondents will be asked to return hard-copy survey instruments within 30 days of receipt. Online survey instruments are completed online and answers are recorded immediately upon completion of the online survey. The purpose of such requests would be to ensure that all responses are obtained in a timely fashion, thus allowing the contractor to assess survey results and provide a complete and timely analysis of the data to the agency. Responses to all collections under this generic clearance are voluntary, thus any individual who is not able or willing to provide a response within the requested time period is not obligated to do so.

8. Consultation Outside the Agency

A notice soliciting comments on this extension of Generic Clearance will be published in the Federal Register. In addition, notice of this Request to extend Generic Survey Clearance was delivered to the agencies’ task monitors for distribution and comment throughout the agencies. Survey staff keep informed of new technology and survey and statistical methodology through classes, seminars, conferences, and relevant periodical literature. Information acquired via these means is used to help improve each agency’s efforts.

9. Payment to Respondents

Agencies do not provide any payment, gifts, or compensation of any kind to respondents.

10. Assurance of Confidentiality

Respondents are informed that their participation is voluntary and that no individual identifying information will be collected. In electronic response center and online surveys, individual personal identifying data is not collected. In focus group meetings, respondents organizations and position information is collected but names are not. With all hard-copy survey information, individual personal identifying data is not collected. With all survey instruments, wherein any personally identifying data is inadvertently added by a respondent, that information is deleted/removed by the collecting agent (e.g. NCJRS contractor.) Original detail survey information is retained by the collecting agent for 90 days after the summary information has been received and approved by the Government agency sponsoring the survey.

11. Questions of a Sensitive Nature

No questions of a sensitive nature will be included in any of the surveys conducted under this generic clearance. No street address information nor social security number information will collected. Prior to implementing any survey activity included in this generic clearance, a copy of each survey instrument/mechanism will be provided to OMB, along with a description of the activity and the number of burden hours involved.

12. Estimates of Annualized Hour Burden

Estimates of burden hours and the associated costs are provided below. Exact costs to respondents cannot be determined at this time and will be minimized as much as possible.

Estimated Annual Reporting Burden

	Mail	Web	Phone	Telecon-ference / WebCast	Focus groups	Annual Total
a) Number of surveys	1	5	1	1	1	9
b) Respondents per survey	12,000	10,000	3,000	25	40	*132,130
c) Number of responses per respondent	1	1	1	1	1	1
d) Minutes per response	10	6	4	90	90	1,019,700
e) Total reporting burden hours = (a×b×c×d)/60 or annual total min./60	2,000	5,000	200	37.5	60	*7,297.5

Annual: *7,297.5 hours

*Note: The total annual burden hours is computed by summing the annual burden hours for each survey vehicle (e.g. mail+web+phone+Telecon+Focus Grp: 2,000+5,000+200+37.5+60=7,297.5). Attempting to calculate the annual total by multiplying figures in the annual total column overstates the correct sum of burden hours due to large numbers of respondents for mail, web and phone surveys multiplied by large number of burden hours for teleconference and focus group activities. Annual total of respondents is calculated by multiplying the number of surveys times the number of respondents and summing the products for each survey type. Annual minutes per response is calculated in the same way as annual total of responsdents.

The projected hours per response for this collection of information were derived by estimating the amount of time spent by respondents to review the survey instructions, understand the contents, and complete and return the questionnaire.

The projected number of respondents for each survey ranges as follows: mail surveys from 500-12,000 respondents; phone surveys from 150-3,000 respondents; World Wide Web surveys from 5,000-10,000 respondents; and focus groups from 8-40 respondents; and there will be approximately 25 respondents for the teleconference/Webcast. The ranges in the number of respondents are considerably large because the number of constituents per topic, service, or information product type varies widely among the number NCJRS partner agencies.

Estimated Annual Burden Cost to Respondents

	Mail	Web	Phone	Telecon-ference	Focus group
a) Respondent hourly salary	$14.79	$14.79	$14.79	$14.79	$14.79
b) Minutes per response	10	6	4	90	90
c) Time cost per respondent = (a×b)/60	$2.46	$1.48	$0.99	$22.19	$22.19
d) Respondents per survey	12,000	10,000	3,000	25	40
e) Number of surveys	1	5	1	1	1
f) Total cost to respondents = c×d×e	$29,520	$74,000	$2,970	$555	$888

Annual: $107,993

*Note: The total cost to respondents is computed by summing the respondent costs for each survey vehicle (e.g. mail+web+phone+Teleconf+Focus Grp: $29,520+$74,000+$2,970+$555+$888=$107,993).

The hourly salary was obtained from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and represents the average hourly earnings of production or non-supervisory workers on private non-farm payrolls in July, 2002 (the latest date for which data is available).

13. Estimates of Annualized Cost Burden to Respondents

Total annual postage costs to respondents are estimated to be $2,340. This estimate is based on the following assumptions: half of the mail-out surveys will require postage from respondents; and the price of a first class postage stamp will remain 39 cents. The cost calculation is:

(12,000 respondents) X (1 surveys) X (½ require postage) X (.39/stamp) = $2,340.

There are not expected to be any other costs to the respondents.

14. Estimates of Annualized Cost to the Government

The annual cost to all of the specified Government agencies is estimated to be $85,000. This figure covers the 9 annual survey events (1 mail surveys, 5 web surveys, 1 phone surveys, 1 teleconferences/webcasts and 1 focus groups.) The costs are for contract labor hours and direct costs involved in the following activities:

Survey Planning Questionnaire and survey design

Testing of survey instrument Production of questionnaire

Web page and database setup (Web survey only) Web page and DB maintenance (Web

Telephone usage (phone survey only) surveys only)

Reproduction (mail survey only) Data entry (mail and phone surveys)

Data preparation Analysis and reporting

Postage (mail survey only) Web costs (hosting fees or new url)

Warehouse handling, storage , and distribution (mail survey)

Long Distance phone charges (phone survey)

There are no capital or start-up costs associated with information collections under this generic clearance.

15. Changes in Burden

The burden for the three year extension period totals 21,892.5 hours, or 7,297.5 hours annually for the three year extension. This is in addition to the original 1,650 burden hours, and the first extension of 50,985 hours. This is a substantial decrease in burden which is in response to changes in Agency actions. As presented in other paragraphs, the Agencies have been transforming their publications and communications from hard-copy items to electronic items as a result of changes directed by Agency Directors and will approach an approximate level of 75% electronic dissemination by December, 2006. In order to meet higher goals of electronic communication in a manner consistent with the high levels of customer satisfaction mandated by the Executive Office, it will be necessary to continue to gather user satisfaction data via the survey mechanisms planned.

16. Time Schedule, Publication and Analysis Plans

Following approval of this Generic Clearance, specific customer satisfaction questionnaires will be submitted to OMB for review and the information will be collected following OMB approval. Contractor support may be employed to oversee survey aspects including design, collection, tabulation, and analysis. There is no plan for the contractor to provide any agency with raw survey data. The contractor may provide each agency with a cumulative survey report. The agencies do not expect to be provided with raw data nor does the NCJRS 2008 contract call for this data exchange. Agencies plan to use the cumulative survey report to formulate recommendations to agency managers for planning purposes. The contractor will maintain raw data records for a period of at least 90 days in case a question arises from the cumulative survey report. Results of surveys will be published on web pages and in other NCJRS publications for public consumption.

17. Display of Expiration Date

All surveys conducted under this generic clearance will display the OMB clearance number and expiration date. For phone, teleconference and webcast surveys, this information will be read to each respondent. For mail and web surveys, display of expiration date, the OMB control number and expiration date will appear on the first page or screen of the section that contains the questionnaire. For focus groups, respondents will be advised of this information verbally.

18. Exceptions to Certification Statement

Agencies are not requesting an exemption to the certification of this information collection. Descriptive statistics including totals, averages, and median values may be used for some of the collections covered under this generic clearance. As surveys are developed which will use these statistical methods, responses to questions 1 through 5 of this section will be provided, along with specific information for that particular activity, including survey instruments. Upon completion of the analysis of data, results of the survey activities will be provided.

B. Collection of Information Employing Statistical Methods

Section B is not applicable as this collection does not employ statistical methods.