Sigcat Software Showcase 1992/SIGCat Software Showcase 1992 - CD-ROM Strategies.ISO/research/docs/c06.doc

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GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION
     Washington, DC  20405


                     FIRMR BULLETIN C-6

TO:  Heads of Federal agencies

SUBJECT:  Federal Information Resources Management Review Program

1.  Purpose.  This bulletin describes the procedures that Federal
agencies should follow and the actions GSA will take in carrying
out the review responsibilities of the Paperwork Reduction Act.

2.  Expiration date.  This bulletin contains information of a
continuing nature and will remain in effect until canceled.

3.  Contents.

    Topic                                              Paragraph

Related material..........................................4
Information and assistance................................5
Acronyms..................................................6
Requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act...............7
OMB and GSA responsibilities..............................8
Applicability.............................................9
Objectives of the program.................................10
Program description.......................................11
  Purpose of IRM reviews..................................11a
  Scope of IRM reviews....................................11b
  Relationship to other review requirements...............11c
Procedures................................................12
  Data call...............................................12a
  Plans...................................................12b
  Annual executive summaries..............................12c
  Reporting...............................................12d
  Alternative reporting option............................12e
Agency responsibilities...................................13
GSA as the focal agency...................................14
Assistance from GSA.......................................15
Cancellation..............................................16
Instructions for Completing Annual
  Summary Report to GSA.............................Attachment A

4.  Related material.

    FIRMR Part 201-22

TC 90-1                                                Attachment

     FEDERAL INFORMATION RESOURCES MANAGEMENT REGULATION
                         APPENDIX B
FIRMR Bulletin C-6


5.  Information and assistance.

    General Services Administration
    Procurement and Management Reviews Branch (KMAP)
    18th and F Streets, NW
    Washington, DC  20405

    Telephone:  FTS 241-1332 or [phone].

6.  Acronyms.

FIP      Federal Information Processing
IRM      Information Resources Management
OMB      Office of Management and Budget

7.  Requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act.  The Paperwork
Reduction Act requires that executive agencies and GSA establish
IRM review capabilities.  Specifically, agencies are required by
the Act to carry out their information management activities in an
efficient, effective, and economical manner.  The Act also requires
each executive agency to designate a senior official to carry out
the responsibilities of the agency under the Act.  These
responsibilities include systematically conducting inventories of
major information systems; periodically reviewing major information
management activities; ensuring that information systems do not
overlap; developing procedures for assessing the paperwork and
reporting burden of proposed legislation; assigning the senior
official responsibility and accountability for IRM acquisitions;
implementing applicable Governmentwide and agency information
policies, principles, standards, and guidelines with respect to IRM
functions; periodically evaluating and, as needed, improving the
accuracy, completeness, and reliability of data and records
contained within Federal information systems; and developing and
annually revising a five-year plan for meeting the agency's
information technology needs.  In addition, the Act requires GSA to
advise and assist OMB to "selectively review, at least once every
three years, the information management activities of each agency
to ascertain their adequacy and efficiency."  It also requires
"particular attention to whether the agency has complied with
section 3506" of the Paperwork Reduction Act.









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                                              FIRMR Bulletin C-6


8.  OMB and GSA responsibilities.  OMB is required to report to
Congress major activities being accomplished under Paperwork
Reduction Act guidelines, including review activity, and to conduct
such independent reviews as it deems appropriate.  OMB has assigned
responsibility for IRM reviews to GSA.  GSA is the focal agency for
collecting, assessing, and reporting IRM review results to OMB.

9.  Applicability.  This program applies to organizations covered
by the Paperwork Reduction Act.  It includes any executive
department, military department, Government corporation, Government
controlled corporation, or other establishment in the executive
branch of the Government (including the Executive Office of the
President), or any independent regulatory agency.

10.  Objectives of the program.  The principal objectives of the
Federal IRM Review Program are:

    a.  To determine if each executive agency is carrying out its
information management activities in an efficient, effective, and
economical manner in support of program missions and objectives.

    b.  To determine how well each executive agency is complying
with established IRM policies, procedures, principles, standards,
and guidelines.

    c.  To determine whether each executive agency is complying
with Section 3506 of the Paperwork Reduction Act.

11.  Program description.

     a.  Purpose of IRM reviews.  The primary purpose of IRM
reviews is to improve the Governmentwide management of information
resources so that all agencies can accomplish their missions more
efficiently and effectively.  The requirement to selectively review
IRM activities of each agency at least triennially is satisfied by
agency-conducted reviews.

     b.  Scope of IRM reviews.  IRM reviews may encompass any or
all activities of planning, budgeting, organizing, directing,
training, and controlling associated with the creation, collection,
processing, transmission, dissemination, use, storage, and
disposition of information by agencies.  IRM






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encompasses both information itself and the resources, such as
personnel, equipment, funds, and technology used to create,
collect, process, transmit, disseminate, use, store, and dispose of
information.  This includes ADP, telecommunications, office
automation, records management, and their associated activities.

     c.  Relationship to other review requirements.  In meeting the
requirements of the Federal IRM Review Program, agencies should
take advantage of all ongoing review activity in the IRM area.
Examples include reviews preparing for or resulting from the OMB
spring planning and management reviews and/or fall budget reviews;
vulnerability assessments and internal control reviews (OMB
Circular A-123); financial management systems reviews (OMB Circular
A-127); performance of commercial activity reviews (OMB Circular
A-76); IRM activity, privacy, and security reviews (OMB Circular
A-130); information collection reviews; records management
assessments; and internal audits.

12.  Procedures.  Each annual cycle will consist of: a July 1 data
call issued by GSA; agency planning for upcoming reviews; a
November 1 Executive Summary report submitted to GSA by each
agency; and a GSA Consolidated Report to OMB by March 31.

     a.  Data Call.  GSA will issue a "Call for Annual Executive
Summaries" to all executive agencies by July 1.  The call will
include Governmentwide review priorities for the coming fiscal
year.

     b.  Plans.  Agencies are required by FIRMR 201-22 to develop
for their own use an IRM review plan which considers Governmentwide
priorities; establishes and includes agency priorities; provides
specific objectives for the annual review cycle; and includes
details of planned reviews for the upcoming year.  The plan should
also describe how execution of the plan will determine within a
three year period whether the agency is complying with Section 3506
of the Paperwork Reduction Act.

     c.  Annual executive summaries.  By November 1, agencies
should submit to GSA, an annual executive summary of the previous
year's IRM review activity, evaluating how well the reviews met
overall objectives, assessing the benefits of the review effort to
the agency, demonstrating how the agency is complying with agency
responsibilities of Section 3506 of the Paperwork Reduction Act,
and outlining the areas to be reviewed during the next year.  (See
Attachment A to this bulletin.)  Attached to the annual summary
should be one of the following documents:



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                                              FIRMR Bulletin C-6


(i) an attachment that contains a brief synopsis of each review
performed during the previous year, and which also includes the
findings and recommendations derived from each completed review,
(ii) the review report for each review conducted during the
previous year, or, preferably, (iii) those sections of the report
which contain the above information (i.e., an executive summary).

     d.  Reporting.  GSA will collect and analyze agency annual
executive summaries in a consolidated report to OMB.  This report
will include an executive summary of trends and significant
actions, highlight successes, identify problem areas, and provide
profiles of review activity Governmentwide and by agency.  The
consolidated report will be provided to OMB by March 31.  OMB will
report the results of the reviews to appropriate agency heads and
Committees of the Congress.

Agencies are required by Section 3513(c) of the Paperwork Reduction
Act to prepare and submit to OMB and appropriate Congressional
Committees, within 60 days, a written statement that responds to
the results of the reviews and includes actions taken to alleviate
cited problems or deficiencies.

     e.  Alternative reporting option.  Because some of the very
small Federal agencies do not have the resources necessary to meet
the reporting requirements of the Federal IRM Review Program, GSA
has established an option for small agencies (fewer than 50 IRM
personnel and less than $5 million in preceding fiscal year IRM
obligations) to waive the annual reporting requirement.  While
these agencies are still responsible for meeting the review
requirements of the Federal IRM Review Program, the agency may
elect to submit triennially an executive summary which covers its
IRM review efforts during the preceding three years.  Qualified
agencies which elect to waive the annual reporting requirement
should do so in writing annually, no later than November 1, in the
years that do not mark the completion of a triennial cycle when an
executive summary must be submitted.

13.  Agency responsibilities.  As required by the FIRMR, the agency
head, in coordination with the senior official designated under the
requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act, shall delegate IRM
review authorities and responsibilities within the agency
consistent with the Paperwork Reduction Act.  Specifically, the
agency head shall ensure that the agency's review organization:






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FIRMR Bulletin C-6


     a.  Has authority to review programs, functions, and
activities within the objectives and scope of IRM.

     b.  Is responsive to established Governmentwide and
agency-specific priorities.

     c.  Is responsible for meeting the reporting requirements of
the Federal IRM Review Program.

14.  GSA as the focal agency.  The Paperwork Reduction Act requires
the Administrator of General Services to assist the Director of OMB
in reviewing the information management activities of each
executive agency.  To meet these responsibilities, GSA established
an IRM review and reporting process, delegating the responsibility
for conducting IRM reviews to each agency.  GSA serves as the focal
agency for collecting, assessing, and reporting on IRM review
results to OMB.

15.  Assistance from GSA.  To assist agencies in meeting the
requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act and thus the Federal
Information Resources Management Review Program, GSA issues and
maintains an advisory IRM review handbook and will advise and
assist agencies with the IRM review process.

16.  Cancellation.  FIRMR Bulletin 59 is canceled.






Thomas J. Buckholtz
Commissioner
Information Resources
Management Service














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                                              FIRMR Bulletin C-6
                                                    Attachment A


  INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMPLETING ANNUAL SUMMARY REPORT TO GSA


Section 1.  Summary of the IRM review effort.

    Each agency should provide an executive summary of the previous
year's effort that addresses at a minimum:  how many reviews were
planned and completed; the areas of focus; and the major
achievements of the review effort.  Agencies should summarize the
types of reviews conducted and the categories of reviews addressed
during the previous year.

Section 2.  Evaluation of IRM review objectives.

    The evaluation of objectives should address both the Federal
IRM review objectives and specific agency objectives planned by the
agency.  Each program and agency objective should be listed with an
analysis of whether the objective was met and how this was achieved
in concert with the agency IRM review plan.  IRM review objectives
vary widely by agency; therefore, each agency's analysis of those
objectives will be unique.

    Agencies should succinctly state whether objectives have been
met and how this was achieved.  Agencies that listed a
determination of compliance with Section 3506 as one of the
objectives of the program should reference the Section 3506
analysis in Section 4 of the Annual Summary Report, rather than
repeat the same information.

Section 3.  Summary of benefits.

    The Federal IRM Review Program focuses executive attention on
agency information activities which have the potential for
improvements in economy, efficiency, and effectiveness.  It also
emphasizes the relationship between improved management of
information activities and accomplishments of agency mission.  In
this section, the benefits of the effort to the agency should be
addressed.

    Examples of topics that might be included are:  coordinating
IRM-related evaluations such as audits and OMB Circular A-130 to
eliminate overlap and increase coverage; focusing executive level
attention on problems and solutions in IRM; improving user
definition of needs and requirements; reaching a broader audience
concerning IRM issues; and improving data sharing as a result of



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FIRMR Bulletin C-6
Attachment A


the reviews.  In the general case of an automated information
system, an agency review could result in program improvements
such as:  savings in the cost of the acquisition of ADP and
telecommunications resources, higher quality data with greater
value to users, quicker response time, or redirection of staff time
from system maintenance and services to more productive activities.
In records management, the agency may have benefitted from less
costly data storage, or eliminated the need for obsolete forms or
records.

    In order to standardize the format of the input to GSA,
agencies are to categorize benefits by the Governmentwide and
agency defined priority areas.  In general, the benefits should be
as specific and quantitative as practicable.  Where feasible,
benefits should be related to the accomplishment of agency mission.

Section 4.  Status of compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act
of 1980, Section 3506, as amended by the Paperwork Reduction
Reauthorization Act of 1986.

    One of the key areas to discuss in an agency's Report is
compliance with Section 3506 of the Paperwork Reduction Act.  In
preparation for that discussion, the previous annual calls for
submissions of review activities requested that each agency explain
how it planned to address Section 3506 through the IRM review
process.

    In the Annual Summary Report, each subsection of Section 3506
should be individually addressed giving a status report of agency
compliance with the responsibilities described by the subsection.

    It is not required that every review be tied to a subsection of
Section 3506.  The emphasis of this reporting requirement is on
providing an agency status of the activities described in Section
3506, however that compliance information was obtained.  As
appropriate and practicable, agencies may relate compliance to
specific reviews under the umbrella of the IRM review program.

Section 5.  Outline of planned reviews.

    Provide a brief summary of the areas you plan to evaluate
during the next year, including any changes to the IRM review
priorities and objectives established previously.

NOTE:  Each annual data call from GSA will provide more detailed
instructions for completing the report and any attachments.


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