2900-0676 justification

Supporting Statement for Department of Veterans Affairs National Acquisition Center Customer Response Survey and Conference Registration

OMB No 2900-0676

A. Justification

1. This Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) submission seeks an extension of Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval No. 2900-0676 for collection of information to measure customer satisfaction with delivered products/services.

2. National Acquisition Center Survey -The information that is gathered will be used by the National Acquisition Center’s senior staff to assess the satisfaction of the Federal customers of the VA’s various Federal Supply Schedules, National Contracts, Blanket Purchase Agreements, and other national contract programs that relate to medical, surgical, pharmaceutical, patient Mobility devices, dental, laboratory, and medical services, and the vendors that supply the aforementioned items.

3. Collection is entirely automated. The survey is on the Internet and all results complied are used via management screens or exports into Excel or a database maintained at a VA facility in Silver Spring, MD.

4. There are no duplicated efforts. We have reviewed and found no known electronic surveys being performed by our facility or by the headquarters office, the Office of Acquisition and Logistics (OA&L).

5. There is no impact on small businesses. The customer feedback survey will be used to improve and/or enhance program operations for both internal and external customers.

6. Without a more comprehensive and timely means of collecting customer feedback and suggestions, the present programs, processes and procedures administered and utilized by the National Acquisition Center will not be able to grow with increased customer demands and expectations.

7.

a. Reports will be generated quarterly.

b. Information will not be useful in less than 30-day increments.

c. The collections are online.

d. There are no record retention requirements.

e. This is not a statistical survey.

f. This does not require the use of statistical data classification.

g. This does not include a pledge of confidentiality.

h. This does not require the submission of proprietary information.

8. The Department proposed notice was published in the Federal Register on April 6, 2012, at page 20887. There were no comments in response to this notice.

9. No payments or gifts will be provided.

10. No assurances of confidentiality will be provided to respondents.

11. N/A. The request for information does not include any questions of a sensitive nature.

12.

a. NAC Survey Estimated number of respondents: 1000.

b. Estimated frequency of responses: On occasion. A response will be requested any time a vendor or Federal employee has an interaction with any National Acquisition Center employee as it relates to meeting a customer’s needs when using VA’s Federal Supply Schedule or National contracts.

c. Estimated average burden per collection: 5 minutes.

d. Estimated total annual reporting burden: 83 hours.

e. Estimated annualized cost: $3,486 (83 hours at $42 per hour, estimated salary rate, including benefits, based on the likelihood that an individual at a level similar to a GS-9, Step 5, Management Analyst will compile the results).

13.

a. There are no capital costs or operating or maintenance costs.

b. Costs are not expected to vary widely.

c. There are no equipment costs.

14. Estimated annualized cost to the Government:

Cost for the website

maintenance is: $21,000

Annual estimated salary rate: $ 1,680

(20 hours at $42 per hour)

The information will be evaluated quarterly. Senior management will review the feedback and make appropriate management or operational changes, if required, to meet the customer’s needs.

15. There are no program changes.

16. The results will not be published.

17. This request seeks approval to not display the expiration date of OMB approval. This is an on-going requirement. There is a continuing and reoccurring need for this survey and registration form in VA. Continued use is designed to ascertain the overall effectiveness of the survey and will help our programs and our ability to gauge our customers’ satisfaction, which will allow us opportunities to re-engineer and enhance our programs. We anticipate using this survey indefinitely and an expiration date would only tend to confuse the public.

18. This submission does not contain any exceptions to the certification statements.

B. Collection of Information Employing Statistical Methods

The data collection does not employ statistical methods.