Agency Information Collections Under Review by the Office of Management and Budget

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Energy Information Administration

Agency Information Collections Under Review by the Office of

Management and Budget

AGENCY: Energy Information Administration, DOE.

ACTION: Notice of request submitted for expedited review by the Office

of Management and Budget.

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SUMMARY: The Energy Information Administration (EIA) has submitted the

energy information collection(s) listed at the end of this notice to

the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review under provisions

of the Paperwork Reduction Act (Pub. L. No. 96-511, 44 U.S.C. 3501 et

seq.). The listing does not include collections of information

contained in new or revised regulations which are to be submitted under

section 3504(h) of the Paperwork Reduction Act, nor management and

procurement assistance requirements collected by the Department of

Energy (DOE).

Each entry contains the following information: (1) The sponsor of

the collection; (2) Collection number(s); (3) Current OMB docket number

(if applicable); (4) Collection title; (5) Type of request, e.g., new,

revision, extension, or reinstatement; (6) Frequency of collection; (7)

Response obligation, i.e., mandatory, voluntary, or required to obtain

or retain benefit; (8) Affected public; (9) An estimate of the number

of respondents per report period; (10) An estimate of the number of

responses per respondent annually; (11) An estimate of the average

hours per response; (12) The estimated total annual respondent burden;

and (13) A brief abstract describing the proposed collection and the

respondents.

DATES: DOE has requested expedited OMB approval by April 15, 1994. The

Desk Officer may be telephoned at (202) 395-3084. (Also, please notify

the EIA contact listed below.)

ADDRESSES: Address comments to the Department of Energy Desk Officer,

Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and

Budget, 726 Jackson Place NW., Washington, DC 20503. (Comments should

also be addressed to the Office of Statistical Standards at the address

below.)

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jay Casselberry, Office of Statistical

Standards, (EI-73), Forrestal Building, U.S. Department of Energy,

Washington, DC 20585. Mr. Casselberry may be telephoned at (202) 254-

5348.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The energy information collection submitted

to OMB for review was:

1. Energy Information Administration.

2. EIA-887.

3. N.A.

4. DOE Customer Surveys.

5. New--A copy of the Supporting Statement is published below. Any

question can be directed to Jay Casselberry, EI-73, U.S. Department of

Energy, 1000 Independence Ave., SW., Washington, DC 20585. (Phone 202-

254-5346 or FAX 202-254-9700).

6. On occasion.

7. Voluntary.

8. Individuals or households, State or local governments, Farms,

Businesses or other for-profit, Federal agencies or employees, Non-

profit institutions, and Small businesses or organizations.

9. 100,000 respondents.

10. 1 response.

11. .25 hours per response.

12. 25,000 hours.

13. EIA 887 will be used to contact users and beneficiaries of DOE

products or other services to determine how DOE can better improve its

services to meet their needs. Information is needed to make DOE

products more effective, efficient, and responsive and at a lesser

cost. Respondents will be users and beneficiaries of DOE products and

services (Federal, State, and local government representatives,

industry, trade associations, consultants, libraries, and individuals).

Statutory Authority: Section 2(a) of the Paperwork Reduction Act

of 1980, (Pub. L. No. 96-511), which amended chapter 35 of title 44

United States Code (See 44 U.S.C. 3506(a) and (c)(1)).

Issued in Washington, DC, April 4, 1994.

John Gross,

Acting Director, Statistical Standards, Energy Information

Administration.

Supporting Statement, DOE Customer Surveys, EIA-887

Introduction:

The Department of Energy (DOE) requests an expedited approval by

April 15, 1994, of a three-year generic clearance from the Office of

Management and Budget (OMB) to conduct customer surveys. The focus will

be to contact users of DOE products or other services and individuals

or businesses in partnership agreements with the Department to

determine their needs, and how the department can improve its products

and services to better meet these needs. The surveys will be conducted

by various components of the department with support from the Energy

Information Administration. Information is needed to make DOE products

and services more effective, efficient, and responsive at a lesser

cost. Both quantitative and qualitative studies will be undertaken. The

objective of quantitative studies are to ask ``questions concerning

satisfaction with timeliness, courtesy, accuracy and other particular

aspects of the agency's operations.'' Examples of qualitative studies

are ``a focus group of customers assembled to discuss a specific set of

questions'' and ``a cognitive laboratory experiment that asks volunteer

subjects to tell what they are thinking as they read a survey

question.''

For each study that the department undertakes under this generic

clearance, we will notify OMB, at least two weeks in advance, and

provide them with a summary of objectives, specific burden estimates,

and all final or near final survey instruments (focus group scripts,

test questions, etc.) covered by the generic clearance for inclusion in

the OMB public docket prior to their use. If we do not hear that you

disapprove of a customer survey within ten days, then DOE will assume

OMB has no objections and may conduct the survey.

Before any proposal is forwarded to OMB, an adequate internal

review to ensure that the Paperwork Reduction Act rules are carried

out, along with an evaluation of the proposed survey, will be

conducted. All Energy Information Administration program office

directors will be provided copies of the proposed survey for review and

comment. EIA will verify that the material submitted to OMB is

accurate, timely, and complete. Copies will also be provided to

contacts throughout the Department for their review and comment.

EIA's Office of Statistical Standards will also prepare a progress

reporting schedule on an annual basis for summarizing actual burden,

reporting results achieved, and any problems or revisions needed to the

basic clearance agreement.

A. Justification

1. Legal authority. The authority for the voluntary customer

surveys is Executive Order 12862, ``Setting Customer Service

Standards,'' signed September 11, 1993, aimed at:

Ensuring that the Federal Government provides the highest

quality service possible to the American people.'' The Executive

Order establishes an explicit goal for the quality of service--

''Customer service equal to the best in business.'' That is--''The

highest quality of service delivered to customers by private

organizations providing a comparable or analogous service.

2. Uses of data. The data will be used to assist the Department in

satisfying its customers' needs. The information will be analyzed to

determine areas important to our customers, assess our performance in

these areas, and to develop strategies to better meet customer

expectations. Results will be shared throughout the Department and with

other agencies in seminars and through presentations at meetings, e.g.,

the American Statistical Association's Energy Committee meetings.

Reports and publications will also reflect the results.

The data from the customer surveys will be used in conjunction with

data from other sources, surveys of employees, input from management,

agency audits, performance reviews, and complaint and suggestion

systems.

3. Technological considerations to reduce burden. One of the goals

of this effort is to obtain the information required with a minimum

amount of burden on the public. The information will be gathered

through personal or telephone interviews, focus groups, or by mail

questionnaires.

4. Efforts to identify duplication. This effort does not duplicate

any other survey being done by DOE or other Federal agencies. Other

Federal agencies are conducting user surveys, but are not soliciting

comments on the usefulness of DOE products. This effort does involve

contacts with other agencies, especially OMB, Bureau of Labor

Statistics (BLS), and Census. In addition, staff members have and will

take classes on customer surveys given by the Joint Program in Survey

Methodology.

5. Analysis of similar, existing information. We are keeping

abreast of what other Federal agencies are doing regarding customer

surveys. Stan Freedman of EIA is on a committee organized by OMB that

is looking into customer surveys. Jerry Coffey, OMB, gave a

presentation at the ASA Subcommittee on Energy Statistics November 1993

meeting regarding this topic and OMB's role. EIA also coordinated the

OMB approval for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's Form FERC-

597, ``Customer Satisfaction Survey,'' (OMB No. 1902-0163) and has

pretested under the EIA-882(T), ``Generic Clearance for Questionnaire

Testing, Evaluation, and Research,'' (OMB No. 1905-0186).

6. Provisions for reducing burden on small businesses. One of the

main purposes of this effort is to gather information needed without

putting significant additional burden on small businesses. Small

samples will be used to select respondents and the number of questions

on the surveys will be kept to a minimum. However, small businesses, as

well as the agency, will benefit by the government being more

responsive to their needs.

7. Consequences of less frequent reporting. Without this

information collection, DOE would not be able to determine the kind and

quality of service customers want, their level of satisfaction, or ways

in which to improve service to its customers.

8. Compliance with 5 CFR 1320.6. The department will adhere to all

the guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.6.

9. Consultations outside the agency. a. DOE has consulted with and/

or received relevant materials from several agencies, including the

BLS, OMB, and Census Bureau.

b. There are no unresolved problems regarding consultations

conducted on this clearance package.

c. DOE staff have attended several seminars where customer surveys

have been discussed, and will attend more when offered.

DOE/EIA staff will continue to review pertinent literature, seek

advice from academia, industry, and others.

10. Provisions regarding confidentiality. Respondents will be

advised that their participation is voluntary and at this time any

information they provide will be summarized and will become a matter of

public record. We are currently studying whether handling the

information as non-confidential would adversely affect response rates.

If we determine it would and decide to protect the confidentiality, we

will inform OMB at that time.

11. Questions of a sensitive nature. The questions being asked will

not be of a sensitive nature.

12. Annualized cost. (a) The cost to the Federal Government is

$500,000.

(b) There is no cost to respondents for participating in this

survey except for their time which is estimated at $36 an hour (100,000

respondents x 1 report x .25 hours = 25,000 x .25 hours x $36 =

$900,000). There are no plans to remunerate participants.

13. Estimate of respondent burden (Annualized). The annual

respondent burden is estimated to be 25,000 hours. [100,000 respondents

x 1 report x .25 hours (15 min.) = 25,000 burden hours]

14. Summary of changes in respondent burden. Not applicable. This

is a new collection.

15. Schedule of data collection and publication. Specific customer

surveys will be submitted to OMB for review and the information will be

collected unless OMB disapproves within ten days. The results will be

used by the Department to analyze customer satisfaction. Papers may be

written and presented at public meetings, or published in service

reports or policy guidelines.

B. Collection of Information Employing Statistical Methods

1. Respondent description. The respondents are intended to be users

of DOE products or services and others involved with DOE in partnership

agreements (providing oil and gas products for sale, offering

investment partnerships for commercial demonstrations, and delivering

information rights in the form of exclusive intellectual property,

etc.) Respondents include other Federal agencies, the military, State

and local governments, defense contractors, U.S. industrial firms,

universities, educational programs, medical and health care

communities, utilities, energy suppliers, energy equipment vendors,

trade associations, consultants, libraries, and individuals.

2. Procedures for collecting the information. Departmental staff or

DOE contractors will conduct the surveys by telephone or by mail,

conduct focus groups, or cognitive techniques.

3. Methods to maximize response rates and to deal with statistical

issues of non-response. Participation is voluntary. When possible,

respondents will be notified in advance by letter, questions will be

designed so that they are easy to answer, and follow-up callbacks will

be repeated when necessary to maximize response rates.

4. Tests or procedures. The questions to be asked will be similar

to those used by other Federal agencies in their customer surveys. If

respondents are unable to supply the data, questions will be reworded.

Results of these should make the agency more effective and efficient in

responding to customers.

To ensure quality while the data are being collected, special

attention will be paid to (a) the percentage of sampled customers

contacted, (b) interviewer response rate performance, (c) extent of

questions read as worded, (d) questionnaire completion rates as the

survey progresses, (e) response rates of individual survey items, and

(f) daily records on problems arising in the data collection and calls

coming into the agency regarding the survey.

5. Name and telephone number of individual. Nancy Kirkendall, Chief

Statistician of EIA's Office of Statistical Standards may be contacted

on 202-254-5353 regarding the statistical aspects of the customer

surveys. Mr. Jay Casselberry, a Team Leader in the Statistical

Standards Division, may be contacted on (202) 254-5348 regarding other

aspects of these surveys.

[FR Doc. 94-8596 Filed 4-8-94; 8:45 am]

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