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GAO-02-651R 1 (2002-04-29)

handle is hein.gao/gaobaalyt0001 and id is 1 raw text is: £ Accountability * Integrity * Reliability United States General Accounting Office Washington, DC 20548 April 29, 2002 The Honorable Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. Director Office of Management and Budget Subject: Paperwork Reduction Act: Changes Needed to Annual Report Dear Mr. Daniels: On April 11, 2002, we testified before the House Committee on Government Reform's Subcommittee on Energy Policy, Natural Resources and Regulatory Affairs about the implementation of the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995.' Our testimony was based in part on information that was collected by the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) to prepare its annual report to Congress on the implementation of the PRA. As was mentioned in our testimony, OIRA's fiscal year 2002 report differed from the agency's previous reports in two important respects. First, the report provided agency-specific information on paperwork burden-hour estimates and violations only for the cabinet departments and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and did not include any such information for 12 independent agencies that had been included in previous reports. Second, the report merged data on the causes of changes in agencies' burden-hour estimates that previously had been presented separately. This letter is intended to bring those issues directly to your attention and to recommend corrective actions. Most Independent Agencies Not Included in Annual Report In previous annual reports on the PRA, OIRA provided agency-specific burden-hour estimates and information on PRA violations for 27 departments and agencies, including 13 independent agencies that are not cabinet-level departments. However, OMB Bulletin No. 02-02 (Oct. 17, 2001) asked only one independent agency-EPA-to submit the information used to compile the fiscal year 2002 report. OIRA did not indicate in the bulletin why other agencies were not required to provide information. However, in his prepared statement at the April 11, 2001, hearing, the OIRA administrator said the agencies were excluded because (1) OMB's authority over the independent agencies is limited, so its ability to influence their information collection policies through OMB oversight is constrained; (2) most independent 'U.S. General Accounting Office, Paperwork Reduction Act: Burden Increases and Violations Persist, GAO-02-598T (Washington, D.C.: Apr. 11, 2002). GAO-02-651R Annual Paperwork Report

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