Ss_1505-0220_feb2013

Department of Treasury

Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization

OMB No. 1505-0220

Electronic Capability Statement

Supporting Statement

1. Circumstances necessitating the collection of information

The Small Business Act, Public Law 85-536, 15 USC Sec. 631, requires Federal agencies to maintain a small business program to assist, counsel, and advise small businesses of the procedures for contracting with the Department of Treasury. An additional Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU) function is to ensure that small businesses have maximum practicable opportunity for award of Department of Treasury contracts. The Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) provides for participation of small, minority, and women-owned businesses in the procurement process. Due to the TARP and Recovery Act procurement opportunities, there has been a significant increase in small business that want to do business with the Department of Treasury which has increased the administrative burden on OSDBU and the acquisition staff in affected Bureaus. Use of the Electronic Capability Statement will allow small businesses to submit information regarding their capabilities of the Department of Treasury.

The Department of Treasury lacks a central repository of capability statements from small businesses. The information submitted will be captured and analyzed for use by Department of the Treasury acquisition personnel. Additionally, the Department of the Treasury utilizes storage space to maintain paper submissions.

2. Use of the data

The capability statement in the database will be accessible by Bureau acquisition personnel, TARP personnel and the Office of the Procurement Executive to facilitate market research for small business participation in future acquisitions. Use of the data will facilitate the Department of Treasury meeting its small business goals.

Collection of the information will allow the OSDBU to report on the number of small businesses that have submitted their capabilities to the Department of the Treasury, the number of new registrants per year, and allow for specialized search and reporting. Futher, there will be a reduction in the collection and storage of paper documents and will allow for easy search, retrieval and use of a small business’ information for procurement purposes.

There is no duplication of data reporting.

3. Use of information technology

Completed forms may be submitted via electronic commerce.

4. Efforts to identify duplication

The information that will be collected via the Electronic Capability Statement does not represent a duplication of data. Capability statements currently being received via email or hard copy are not stored in a database and are not searchable by acquisition personnel throughout the Department of Treasury.

5. Impact on small entities

Electronic submission of a small business’ capability statement will save the firm graphics and printing expenses. Electronic submissions will provide wider dissemination of the small business’ capability statements through the Department of Treasury and will facilitate identification of small businesses for future solicitations.

6. Consequences of less frequent collection and obstacles to burden reduction

Currently, the Department of the Treasury struggles to meet its small business goals. Implementation of the Electronic Capability Statement will provide the centralized repository that is critically needed. There has been a significant increase in submission of capability statements as a result of TARP and the Recovery Act. Without the database, Department of the Treasury acquisition personnel will continue to spend hours searching paper documents to identify potential small businesses for procurement opportunities. Use of the Electronic Capability Statement will provide an efficient means of identifying small, minority and women-owned businesses for participation in Department of the Treasury, TARP, and Recovery Act procurement opportunities.

7. Circumstances requiring special information collection

There are no special circumstances. The collection of information is conducted in a manner consistent with the guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.6.

8. Solicitation of comments on information collection

A notice was published in the Federal Register soliciting comments from the public on December 31, 2012 at 77 FR77185. The notice requested comments on practical utility; accuracy in estimates, enhancement of collected information, burden reduction, and capital start-up costs. The public was encouraged to provide comments through the Federal Register process as well as through the Department’s public sites.

9. Provision of payments to respondents

Not applicable.

10. Assurance of confidentiality

The information collection of capability statements provided voluntarily by the firms will be maintained as confidential to extent allowed by law consistent with applicable provisions of the Trade Secrets Act and Freedom of Information Act.

11. Justification of sensitive questions

Not applicable.

12. Estimated burden of information collection

Firms will spend approximately 30 to 45 minutes to complete and submit the Electronic Capability Statement. Use of the tool should result in a cost savings to firms who traditionally submit paper capability statements which result in printing, warehousing and postage costs. Updates to company information can be accomplished electronically.

No. of Respondents	No. Responses per Respondent	Total Annual Responses	Hours per Response	Total Annual Burden (hrs.)
420	1	420	0.13	54

13. Estimated total annual cost burden to the respondents

The Department estimates that there will be no annualized capital/start-up costs for the respondents to submit this information.

14. Estimated cost to the Federal government

There will be no annualized capital/start-up costs for the government to receive this information.

15. Reasons for change in burden

This is an extension without change of a currently approved collection.

16. Plans for tabulation, statistical analysis and publication

General information such as the number of registered firms, business size, NAICS and socio-economic status may be used for annual budget and scorecard reporting purposes.

17. Reasons why displaying the OMB expiration date is inappropriate

Display of the OMB expiration date may result in firms not submitting the data via the Electronic Capability Statement because of the misperception and their information may not be used by the Department of the Treasury as the expiration date approaches.

18. Exception to certification requirements of OMB Form 83-I

Regarding this request for OMB approval, there are no exceptions to the certification statement in Item 19 of OMB Form 83-I.

February 2013 4