SUPPORTING STATEMENT FOR
PAPERWORK REDUCTION ACT SUBMISSION
Office of
Language Services Contractor Application
OMB Number
1405-0191
DS-7651
Since the fields of interpreting and translating do not have a formal, standardized certification or accreditation process, the Office of Language Services (OLS) Contractor Application is designed to gather a detailed history of respondents’ linguistic and academic backgrounds to determine whether respondents have the credentials to interpret and/or translate, and to determine whether respondents are legally qualified for contract work with the federal government. Completing the form is voluntary, but OLS may not be able to proceed with processing the form or considering respondents who do not submit a completed form for potential contract work until all requested information is obtained. This may affect respondents’ contract prospects. The U.S. Government is authorized to ask for this information under 5 U.S.C. § 3109; 48 CFR Parts 9, 37, and Section 4.8-803; 5 CFR Parts 731 and 736; and Executive Order 13467 (73 FR 38103).
The information collected is used by the Office of Language Services staff to determine the preliminary credentials and employment qualifications of the respondents (i.e. whether the person is legally employable in the United States). OLS staff also uses the form during language testing of respondents to verify employment and linguistic history as well as contact information and availability for contract assignments. The form is also used by staff, to enter suitable respondents into the OLS contractor database, and occasionally arrange travel accommodations for them.
The respondent will be able to obtain and complete the form electronically from the OLS Internet site at languageservices.service-now.com.
The information collected is not duplicative of other collections.
The collection does not impact small businesses or other small entities.
If the information is not collected, there will be a significant impact on the U.S. Department of State’s interpreting and translating capabilities. The form is the primary means by which potential interpreting and translating contractors are identified by OLS. If the information is not collected, eventually the roster of contract interpreters and translators in all of the languages for which OLS provides services would not contain any qualified contractors.
Respondents are required to submit the information requested if they would like to be considered for freelance, contract interpreting and/or translating work through the U.S. Department of State; however, applying for such work is voluntary.
A 60-day notice was published in the Federal Register (81 FR 6324) on February 5, 2016 and no comments were made. A 30-day notice will be published in the Federal Register requesting public comment.
No payment or gift will be given to respondents.
Other than protections provided by relevant statutes, such as the Privacy Act, the Department makes no promises of confidentiality.
The form does not ask questions of a sensitive nature.
The number of respondents based on a one-year estimate is 700. This figured was derived by counting the number of respondents from 2015. The burden per response is 30 minutes. The annual hour burden is 350. This figure was derived by multiplying the number of responses times by the average time per response. The cost of the information collection for each respondent is based on information from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics website (www.bls.gov), weighted wage rate category for “Interpreters and Translators,” which is estimated at $29.34 ($20.96 average wage x 1.4). Therefore, the estimated annual burden hour cost to respondents “Interpreters and Translators” is 350 annual burden hours times $29.34, to equal $10,269.
There are no costs to respondents associated with this collection.
Annualized estimated costs to the federal government are $25,991, with a total of 700 annualized hours (reviews on average take an hour to review and process); this is based on the hourly rate of a GS-12 employee who processes and reviews applications. Costs were computed using an estimated workload of 1 hour per form, multiplied by 700 estimated responses, and by the average hourly rate of $37.13 = $25,991.
The changes to the burden are a reflection of a recent decrease of applications received. Additionally, the new system will be deployed to the cloud and integrated directly into our management system. This will not only enable the applicant to view the status of their application electronically, but will also allow OLS to gather usage metrics to help improve recruitment.
The information collected will not be published.
The expiration date will be displayed on the form.
The Department is not seeking exceptions to the certification statement.
This collection does not employ statistical methods.
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| File Title | SUPPORTING STATEMENT FOR |
| Author | USDOS |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2021-01-23 |