[E-mail comments to John Dennis (john_dennis@nps.gov) by November 15, 2008]
DIRECTOR’S ORDER #11B: Information Quality – Ensuring Objectivity, Utility,
and Integrity of Information Used and Disseminated by the National Park Service
Approved: ___________________________
Director
Effective Date: ________________________
Duration: This order will remain in effect until amended
or rescinded
Contents:
I. Background and Purpose
II. Authority to Issue this Director's Order
III. Information Quality Standards
IV. Policies and Instructions
V. Responsibilities
VI. Definitions
VII. Legal Effect
__________________________________________
This edition of Director’s Order
#11B replaces the version issued November 16, 2002.
I. BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
In Section 515(a) of the Treasury
and General Government Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2001 (Public Law
106-554; HR 5658), Congress directed the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
to issue government-wide guidelines that “provide policy and procedural guidance
to Federal agencies for ensuring and maximizing the quality, objectivity,
utility, and integrity of information (including statistical information)
disseminated by Federal agencies. The statute and the OMB guidelines require
also that administrative mechanisms be established to allow affected persons
to seek and obtain correction of information maintained and disseminated by
the agency when that information does not comply with guidelines issued by
the OMB. In addition, Section 2(b) of Executive Order 12866 (58
FR 51,735) in 1993 established the Office of Information and Regulatory
Affairs (OIRA) in the OMB as “the repository of expertise concerning regulatory
issues,” and directs OMB to provide guidance to the agencies on regulatory
planning. The Order also requires that “[e]ach agency shall base its decisions
on the best reasonably obtainable scientific, technical, economic, or other
information.”
A Federal Register notice published
by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) February 22, 2002, (67
FR 8452) directed Federal agencies to issue and implement guidelines to
ensure and maximize the quality, objectivity, utility and integrity of Government
information disseminated to the public. On December 15, 2004, the OMB
published the Final Information Quality Bulletin for Peer Review (70 FR 2664).
The purpose of the Bulletin is to enhance the quality and credibility
of the government’s scientific information. The purpose of this Director's
Order and its companion Reference Manual 11B is to establish National Park
Service (NPS) guidelines to comply with these requirements.
The NPS disseminates to the public
and makes management decisions based on a wide variety of information regarding
the national parks, natural and cultural resources, geographic and spatial
data, and commemorative events. Such information takes the form of brochures,
research and statistical reports, policy and regulatory information, and general
reference information. All offices should evaluate and identify all the types
of information utilized and disseminated that will be subject to these guidelines.
II. AUTHORITY TO ISSUE THIS DIRECTOR'S ORDER
The authority to issue this Director's Order is contained
in the 1916 NPS Organic Act (16 U.S.C.1 through 4), delegations of authority
contained in Part 245 of the Department of the Interior Manual, and other
instructions received from the Department of the Interior.
III. INFORMATION QUALITY STANDARDS
The NPS disseminates organizational information, natural and
cultural resource information, and budget information. Organizational information
includes general descriptive information about the NPS and its component parks
and offices. Examples include the parks’ history, functions, and legislative
authorities; organizational charts, the offices within the parks and their
functions; the parks’ strategic and performance plans and their budgetary
information; and information pertaining to the parks’ history, natural and
cultural resources and administrative processes. Responsible management and interpretation of NPS
resources and NPS technical assistance programs depend on authoritative information
from scientific and scholarly activities. These activities, which include
inventory, monitoring, research, assessment, and management projects, must
be conducted to a high level of technical quality and accuracy to ensure that
all information disseminated or utilized by the NPS complies with basic
standards of quality that maximize the objectivity, utility, and integrity
of information.
A. Reliable Data. The
NPS will ensure that information it releases to the public or utilizes in
management decisions will be developed from reliable data sources that provide
the highest quality of information at each stage of information development.
The NPS’s methods for producing quality information will be made transparent,
to the maximum extent practicable, through accurate documentation, use of
appropriate internal and external review procedures, consultation with experts
and users, and verification of the quality of the information. The NPS will
also keep users informed about corrections and revisions.
Information will be developed only from reliable data sources
based on accepted practices and policies, utilizing accepted methods for information
collection and verification. To ensure high quality, information should be
peer reviewed at an appropriate level and at appropriate times. Data will
be reproducible to the extent possible. Influential information will be produced
with a high degree of transparency about data and methods. The information
should include all pertinent information to allow the public to understand
the park's legislative authorities, mission, activities, organization, strategic
plan, performance plan, and performance accomplishments.
B. Accuracy and Timeliness. All information disseminated and utilized in management decisions
or in releases to the public will be accurate, timely, and reflect the most
current information available. All information sources will be documented.
Where appropriate, it will provide users with additional documentation or
with method(s) to access supporting documentation by reference (e.g., citations)
or by electronic means (e.g., “links”).
C. Compliance with Laws, Regulations and Policy. All information will comply with current NPS and Departmental
policies and guidelines that govern information utilization for management
or dissemination to the public. The information will also comply with the
requirements of applicable public laws, such as the Government Performance
and Results Act of 1993, FOIA, exemptions to FOIA, and implementing rules,
regulations, directives and instructions issued under the authority of such
laws. To the maximum extent possible, information will be made available on
Service websites for easy access by the public.
In addition to these standards, the information quality standards
as described by OMB's final guidelines and the Department of the Interior's
guidelines are incorporated by reference as NPS policy and standards.
D. Third Party Information Under the Guidelines. If NPS relies upon technical, scientific, or economic information
submitted or developed by a third party, that information is subject to the
appropriate standards of quality, objectivity, utility, integrity, and peer
review. The standards of these guidelines apply not only to information that
NPS generates, but also to information that other parties provide to NPS,
if NPS disseminates or relies upon this information.
E. Paperwork Reduction Act. NPS's components will make use of OMB's Paperwork Reduction
Act (PRA) clearance process to help improve the quality of information that
NPS collects, utilizes in management decisions, and/or disseminates to the
public. All proposed collections of information that are disseminated to the
public should demonstrate in their PRA clearance submissions to OMB that the
proposed collection of information will result in information that will be
collected, maintained, and used in a way consistent with the DOI and OMB Quality
Information guidelines.
IV. POLICIES AND INSTRUCTIONS
A. Information Approval.
All information disseminated to the public must be approved by the appropriate
program and/or regional office prior to its dissemination and must satisfy
OMB and Departmental guidelines. The approval process will include documentation
of the specific information quality standards and peer review processes used
in producing the information in a way to substantiate the quality, utility,
objectivity, and integrity of the information in a manner that conforms to
OMB and Departmental guidelines.
B. Documentation. Offices
may issue documentation for standard types of information that they disseminate
and reference these in subsequent approvals. These standards must be approved
by the originating office and the documentation retained by the office as
long as the standard is active.
C. Complaints About Information Quality. Affected persons may avail themselves of four methods for
notifying the NPS of complaints:
A formal request for correction of information must include
the following:
D. Processing Complaints. The CCU will route complaints it receives to the park or office that disseminated
the information and track responses to ensure that NPS complies with the requirements
of this Director's Order. The park or office receiving the complaint, regardless
of the manner of receipt, will notify the complainant of receipt within 10
working days. The disseminating office will evaluate the complaint within
60 calendar days of the day it is received by the NPS, in accordance with
the OMB guidelines, and notify the complainant as to whether the information
has been corrected, deleted, or confirmed to be accurate.
A second complaint received on the same subject before the
issuance of a 60 calendar day notice for an overlapping complaint under review
will be treated with simultaneous consideration, and the second complainant
will be notified within 10 working days that an analysis is in progress and
advised of its status. The earlier and later complaints will be combined,
and a combined 60 calendar day finding will be issued based on the date of
the first complaint.
If a second complaint on the same subject is received after
a 60 calendar day notice has been issued, then the second complaint will require
a new and separate review, however recent. Unless substantial new information
has been submitted, the 60 calendar day finding for the earlier complaint
shall suffice and the new response should be relatively easy to produce.
E. Comments Associated with Structured Reviews. The NPS conducts a substantial amount of business through
processes which involve a structured opportunity for public review and comment
on proposed documents prior to their issuance in final form. These activities
include rulemakings and analyses conducted under the National Environmental
Policy Act (NEPA). In these instances, requests made under these guidelines
for corrections of information in draft documents will generally be treated
as a comment on the draft document and the response will be included in the
final document.
In the case of rulemaking and other public comment procedures
where the NPS disseminates a study analysis or other information prior to
the final agency action or information product, requests for correction will
be considered prior to the final agency action or information dissemination
in those cases where the NPS has determined that an early response would not
unduly delay issuance of the agency action or information, and the complainant
has shown a reasonable likelihood of suffering actual harm from the agency's
dissemination if the agency does not resolve the complaint prior to the final
agency action or dissemination of an information product.
In cases where a request pertains
to a final document, the NPS will first determine whether the request pertains
to an issue discussed in the draft document upon which the requester could
have commented. If the NPS determines that the requester had the opportunity
to comment on the issue at the draft stage and failed to do so, it may consider
the request to have no merit. If information which did not appear in the draft
document is the subject of a request for correction, the NPS will consider
that request. If the NPS determines that the information does not comply with
the guidelines issued by the Department or OMB, such that the non-compliance
with the Department or OMB guidelines presents significant new circumstances
or information relevant to environmental concerns and bearing on the proposed
action or its impacts, the NPS will use existing mechanisms to remedy the
situation, such as re-proposing a rule or supplementing a NEPA analysis.
NPS solicitation of peer review
is another form of structured review. In
this case, NPS specifically seeks comments on draft information from peers
of the preparers of information and uses the results of such reviews to improve
the quality, utility, objectivity, credibility, and integrity of the information
prior to formally disseminating the information.
F. Exemptions. Information
specifically not subject to these guidelines includes:
Note:
Information disseminated prior to
G. Appeals Process. If a complainant does not receive the notice or the response within the time frames described above, or wishes to appeal a determination of merit, or wishes to appeal the proposed correction of information, the complainant may appeal to the NPS Director. Authority to resolve the appeal is hereby delegated to the Senior Executive Service official who supervises the supervisor of the affected program office or park. If that SES official determines that an appeal of a determination of merit or the proposed correction of information has merit, the affected program office or park will be instructed to withdraw the challenged information, to the extent practicable, from the public domain and not to use the challenged information in any Departmental, bureau, or office decision-making process until it is corrected. The SES official will make a decision on the final appeal within 60 calendar days.
H.
Peer Review. The NPS will ensure appropriate peer review of all scientific
and scholarly information prior to its use in decision-making, regulatory
processes, or dissemination to the public and regardless of the type of media
used to contain the information.
I. Further Information.
NPS personnel and the public should consult the website at www.nps.gov/notices.htm.
V. RESPONSIBILITIES
A. The Associate Director, Administration, through the
B. Associate Directors and
Regional Directors, are responsible
for ensuring that their programs, partners, and contractors implement these
policies and procedures.
C. The Associate Director, Natural Resource Stewardship
and Science, working appropriately with
the Associate Director, Cultural Resources,
is responsible for preparing and maintaining the reference manual that provides
the necessary detailed and comprehensive guidance for compliance with this
Director’s Order. The Associate Director will ensure that the
manual addresses ethics requirements and includes a code of scientific and
scholarly conduct for employees who work with scientific and scholarly information.
D. Managers are responsible
for:
E. The CCU is responsible
for:
VI. DEFINITIONS
In complying with this Director's Order, the following definitions
apply:
A. Quality - is an encompassing
term comprising utility, objectivity, and integrity. Therefore, the guidelines
sometimes refer to these four statutory terms, collectively, as "quality."
B. Utility - refers to
the usefulness of the information to its intended users, including the public.
In assessing the usefulness of information that the NPS disseminates to the
public, the disseminating office needs to consider the uses of the information
not only from its own perspective, but also from the many, varied perspectives
of the public. As a result, when transparency of information is relevant for
assessing the information's usefulness from the public's perspective, the
disseminating office must take care to ensure that transparency has been addressed
in its review of the information.
C. Objectivity - involves
two distinct elements, presentation and substance. "Objectivity"
includes presenting disseminated information in an accurate, clear, complete,
and unbiased manner and within a proper context. In addition, "objectivity"
includes ensuring that the substance of the information is accurate, reliable,
and unbiased. In a scientific, scholarly, financial, or statistical context,
the original and supporting data shall be generated, and the analytic results
shall be developed, using peer-accepted scientific, scholarly, and statistical
methods.
D. Integrity - refers
to the security of information - protection of the information from unauthorized
access or revision, to ensure that the information is not compromised through
corruption or falsification.
E. Information - means
any communication or representation of knowledge such as fact or data, in
any medium or form, including textual, numerical, graphic, cartographic, narrative,
or audiovisual forms. This definition includes information that an office
disseminates from a web page, but does not include the provision of hyperlinks
to information that others disseminate. This definition does not include opinions,
where the presentation of the communication clearly demonstrates that what
is being presented is someone's opinion rather than fact or an official statement.
F. Dissemination - means
NPS initiated or sponsored distribution of information to the public. Dissemination
does not include distribution limited to government employees or NPS contractors,
partners, or grantees; intra- or inter-agency use or sharing of government
information; and responses to requests for agency records under the Freedom
of Information Act, the Privacy Act, the Federal Advisory Committee Act, or
other similar law. This definition also does not include distribution limited
to correspondence with individuals or persons, press releases, archival records,
public filings, subpoenas or adjudicative processes.
G. Peer Review - A quality control process in which the scientific or scholarly merit of scientific or scholarly information is critically evaluated by independent peers, meaning persons who are not associated directly or indirectly with the information under review and whose backgrounds and expertise at the very least make them the technical, scientific, and scholarly equals to the authors of the information.
VII. LEGAL EFFECT
These guidelines are intended only to improve the internal
management of the National Park Service relating to information quality. Nothing
in these guidelines is intended to create any right or benefit, substantive
or procedural, enforceable by law or equity by a party against the
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of Director's Order ---------------