OMB - Supporting Statement - Employment Verification Questionnaire

Supporting Statement for Paperwork Reduction Act Submission

Employment Verification Questionnaire

OMB control Number 0412-NEW

1. This information collection is being created in response to the requirements in Section 1248(c) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 (Public Law 110-181. Congress has requested that a number of Departments and Agencies, including USAID, examine the options for establishing a unified, classified database of specific personal information data elements of Iraqi employees related to contracts, grants, or cooperative agreements entered into by these Departments and Agencies for the performance of work in Iraq since March 20, 2003 to assist Iraqi refugees with resettlement to the United States.

2. This information will be used by USAID to write a position paper as required by the above Authorization Act. This information collection will only be used once to provide USAID with a baseline of partner capabilities to provide employment verification information.

3. This information collection will be emailed out to approximately 75 recipients and they will fill out the form electronically and email it back to USAID.

4. USAID does not have access to partner employee records therefore there is no record duplication.

5. This information collection will not impact small businesses or other small entities.

6. If this information collection is not conducted then USAID will not be able to meet its statutory requirement of reporting back to congress regarding the options for establishing a unified, classified database of specific personal information data elements of Iraqi employees related to contracts, grants, or cooperative agreements entered into by these Departments and Agencies for the performance of work in Iraq since March 20, 2003 to assist Iraqi refugees with resettlement to the United States.

7. a) This information collection will only be conducted once.

b) USAID would like to have responses in less than 30 days so that we can meet our statutory obligation of reporting back to Congress.

c) Respondents are not required to submit any additional documentation.

d) Respondents will not be required to retain records since the ultimate goal is to create a unified, classified database.

e) This information collection is not a statistical survey.

f) This information collection is not a statistical survey.

g) This information collection does not involve a pledge of confidentiality.

h) This information collection does not require respondents to submit proprietary information.

8. The Agency met with nine implementing partners on September 12, 2008 to discuss the potential burden of answering this questionnaire and whether the partners would have access to employment verification information for Iraqi citizens and nationals. Further, the Agency is limiting the questionnaire to ask only for those fields of information that are necessary to confirm that an Iraqi citizen or national worked for the United States Government and to entitle them to a Special Immigrant Visa.

9. No payment or gift will be provided to respondents.

10. This information collection does not provide an assurance of confidentiality.

11. This information collection does not contain any questions of a sensitive nature.

12. USAID estimates that this information collection will be sent to 75 recipients and those 75 recipients will respond. USAID estimates that it will take 4 hours to respond to this information collection which includes respondents researching their databases and file keeping processes to report whether they contain any of the employment verification fields that USAID is seeking to address. The hour burden would be 75 respondents X 4 hours = 300 hours. This request for approval only covers one form. The cost per respondent is minimal

13. There is no total capital or start-up cost associated with this information collection. There is no total operation and maintenance or purchase of service component cost associated with this information collection.

14. There is no annualized cost to the Federal government associated with this information collection. If this information collection is not approved, USAID will not be able to provide an accurate assessment of partner cooperation in the creation of a unified, classified database.

15. There are no program changes or adjustments to report.

16. The information collection will not be published. The information collected will be used to create the USAID position paper to report to Congress on the options for establishing a unified, classified database of specific personal information data elements of Iraqi employees related to contracts, grants, or cooperative agreements entered into by these Departments and Agencies for the performance of work in Iraq since March 20, 2003 to assist Iraqi refugees with resettlement to the United States.

17. USAID is not seeking approval to not display the expiration date for OMB approval of the information collection.

18. USAID is not seeking an exception to the certification statement.