For E-Gov Act report, OMB reducing reporting burden

The Office of Management and Budget is following its own collect-once-and-use-many mantra for the fiscal 2005 report to Congress on the E-Government Act of 2002.OMB is asking agencies for two additional items on top of the information they already provided under the Federal Information Security Management Act report, and on each agency’s progress under the human capital category of the President’s Management Agenda. All this information will become part of the E-gov report. In a to CIOs last week, OMB detailed the specific requirements for agencies. Reports are due to OMB Oct. 21.Agencies must provide a two-page summary of the implementation of the E-Gov Act, including a description of an internal, agency-specific e-government initiative. The summary should include how the project, which should not be one of the 25 e-government projects, is transforming agency operations.It also should identify external partners and how the agency communicates with them, identify improved performance by tracking metrics that support the agency’s mission, quantify cost savings and cost avoidance, and explain how the agency ensures the information is available to those without Internet access.The second item describes the process by which the agency determines what information will be made available on the Internet and other non-electronic means.Agencies should include details about how much progress they have made in permitting citizens to search all public files, for displaying results in order of relevancy and providing response times equivalent to industry best practices.