A. Justification for: FS Form 2966, "Special Bond of Indemnity By Purchaser Of United States Savings Bonds/Notes Involved In a Chain Letter Scheme.”
1. Explain the circumstances that make this collection of information necessary. Identify any legal or administrative requirements that necessitate the collection.
The information is requested to support a request for refund of the purchase price of savings bonds purchased in a chain letter scheme. The issuance of savings bonds in the furtherance of a chain letter scheme violates certain laws and regulations of the United States if the mails were used and might violate state laws even if the mails were not used. The refund of the purchase price of such bonds is authorized by the Secretary of the Treasury subject to the purchaser furnishing a bond of indemnity to the United States of America.
2. Indicate how, by whom and for what purpose is this information used?
The information is used by the Department of the Treasury, Bureau of the Fiscal Service and its agents to identify the securities involved and to issue a refund of the purchase price. Without the information, the transaction cannot be completed.
3. Describe whether, and to what extent, the collection of information involves the use of automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or other forms of information technology? What consideration is given to use information technology to reduce burden?
The form is available from the Bureau of the Fiscal Service and also on the Internet as a fill-in PDF form.
4. Describe efforts are used to identity duplication? Why can’t any similar information already available be used or modified for use for the purposes described in Item 2 above?
The information from the form is collected for a single purpose as described in item 1. No other federal governmental agency collects this type of information, therefore, no duplication exists.
5. If this collection of information impacts small businesses or other small entities, what methods are used to minimize burden?
This collection of information does not impact small business or other small entities.
6. What consequences to Federal program or policy activities and what, if any, technical or legal obstacles to reducing burden will occur if this collection is not conducted or is conducted less frequently?
Information requested on the form is voluntary, however, without the use of this form, the Bureau of the Fiscal Service and its agents would not have the ability to identify the securities involved and to issue a refund of the purchase price.
7. Is this collection of information conducted in a manner consistent with the guidelines of 5 CFR 1320.6?
There are no special circumstances. The collection of information is conducted in a manner consistent with the guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.6.
8. What effort was made to notify the general public about this collection of information?
The Bureau’s notice was published in the Federal Register on November 29, 2019, page 65896. No comments were received.
9. What decision was made to provide any payment or gift to respondents, other than reenumeration of contractors or grantees?
There are no payments or gifts made to respondents.
10. What assurance of confidentiality was provided to respondents and what was the basis for the assurance in statute, regulations, or agency policy?
Aside from protections contained in the Privacy Act, there is no guarantee of confidentiality.
11. What justification is there for questions of a sensitive nature?
There are no questions of a sensitive nature. Personally identifiable information (PII) collected on this form such as name, and social security number, is necessary to support a request for refund of the purchase price of savings bonds purchased in a chain letter scheme. An applicable System of Records Notice for this information was published August 17, 2011. System of Records Name: Treasury/BPD.002 – United States Savings-Type Securities.
The Bureau of the Fiscal Service conducts a Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) on information systems collecting personally identifiable information from the public. We do PIAs to ensure that:
we tell the public the information that we collect about them,
we adequately address impacts these systems have on personal privacy,
we collect only enough personal information to administer our programs, and no more
Also, PIAs confirm that we use the information for the purpose intended; that the information remains timely and accurate; that it is protected while we have it, and we hold it only for as long as we need it.
The PIA for the Savings Bond Replacement system is available at https://fiscal.treasury.gov/files/pia/sabre-pclia.pdf
12. What is the estimated hour burden of this collection of information?
The average time needed is 8 minutes per response multiplied by the estimated number of responses (240) reflects the total burden of 32 hours.
13. What is the estimated total annual cost burden to respondents or recordkeepers resulting from this collection of information?
There are no capital/start-up or ongoing operation/maintenance costs associated with this information collection.
14. What is the annualized cost to the Federal Government?
The following factors were used to estimate the annual burden to this agency:
Printing cost - estimated number of forms printed annually, multiplied by the unit cost of the forms.
Case processing cost – estimated number of forms completed, multiplied by a percentage of the unit cost of case processing.
Forms management cost - salary cost of forms management personnel.
Printing Cost: 240@ $0.02/form = $ 4.80
Case Processing Cost: 240@1.50/form = 360.00
Forms Management Cost = 500.00
Total Cost $ 864.80
15. What is the reason for any program changes or adjustments reported?
The form is used in processes related to securities that are no longer issued in paper form. The reduction of 288 burden hours is a change due to updated agency estimates, for a total of 32 hours requested.
16. For collections of information whose results will be published, outline plans for tabulation and publication.
There are no plans to publish the results of this collection.
17. If seeking approval to not display the expiration date for OMB approval of this information collection, what are the reasons that the display would be inappropriate?
The public interest will be better served by not displaying an expiration date on FS Form 2966. The time period during which the current edition of the form will continue to be usable cannot be predicted. It could easily span several cycles of review and OMB clearance renewal. Displaying the expiration date would make it necessary to update the electronic form and website where it is accessed after each renewal. Additionally, not displaying the expiration date on the form will avoid confusion among members of the public who may have identical forms with different expiration dates in their possession. By not displaying the expiration date, supplies of the form could continue to be used regardless of when the OMB approval has expired. This would reduce costs incurred through additional printing and desktop publishing.
18. What are the exceptions to the certification statement?
There are no exceptions to the certification statement.
B. This collection does not employ statistical methods.
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Author | ATF |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2021-01-14 |