These 68 generic
civil works project planning questionnaires in the broad categories
of flood damage, navigation, environment, customer satisfaction,
public participation, operations, recreation planning, and
recreation resource management are approved for three years,
subject to the following conditions: 1) Wording changes to the
specific questions to more accurately reflect the context of the
survey are permitted. 2) Subsets or combinations of questions from
one or more approved questionnaires, as applicable to the area and
problem being studied, are permitted. 3) Each questionnaire must
display the OMB control number (0710-0001) and expiration date
(November 30, 2005), and must inform respondents that an agency may
not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to,
a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid
OMB control number. This same information must also be provided for
surveys conducted orally. 4) Each questionnaire must inform
respondents, either in the instructions or in an accompanying cover
letter, that participation is voluntary. 5) Each questionnaire must
be submitted to OMB for final approval prior to use. OMB will
complete this approval step within 10 business days. Each
questionnaire should be accompanied by a brief supporting statement
describing the purpose of the survey, where and when it is to be
conducted, the population to be surveyed, the sample size, the
sampling methodology, and references to the approved generic
questionaires and question numbers. OMB will approve all
questionnaires that are consistent with the generic questionnaires
in this ICR and these terms of clearance. 6) Corps Headquarters
will send a memo to all District Offices informing them of the
conditions for use of these questionnaires. When interpreting
results of the surveys, care should be taken in extrapolating those
results from the sample to a larger population. This should be done
only to the extent that a statistically valid representiative
sample has been surveyed. This is particularly relevant for
customer satisfaction surveys, which are generally designed to
identify potential problems and provide qualitative guidance on
ways to improve customer service, rather than to provide
quantitative statistics for use in program evaluation. These
surveys are designed to support the planning and management
requirements of existing Corps projects, or new projects that are
within the traditional mission of the Corps. They are not designed
to explore areas outside of the Corps's traditional mission, or to
market or promote projects that would not otherwise be undertaken.
OMB understands that the Corps is currently developing and refining
models for use in estimating potential flood control benefits, and
that once operational, such models may reduce the need to survey
potential flood victims directly. OMB believes this approach may
both reduce respondent burden and yield better damage estimates,
and encourages the Corps to move forward with it
expeditiously.
Inventory as of this Action
Requested
Previously Approved
07/31/2006
07/31/2006
11/30/2002
214,150
0
112,400
17,750
0
15,923
0
0
0
The Corps of Engineers uses public
surveys for collecting pri- mary data for planning, program
evaluation, and basic research to improve formulation and design of
resources projects and their management of operations.
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that
the collection of information encompassed by this request complies
with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR
1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding
the proposed collection of information, that the certification
covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a
benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control
number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of
these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked
and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.
Corps of Engineers Civil Works Questionnairs - Generic Clearance