Health Care and Other Facilities Project
Status Update Form
SUPPORTING STATEMENT
A. JUSTIFICATION
1. Circumstances of Information Collection
The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) is requesting Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval for the Health Care and Other Facilities Project Status Update Form. This form will allow for the standardized and electronic collection of information that will allow HRSA to monitor and verify its grantees’ progress towards completion of their projects. The information collection is authorized by 42 USC 300s-6 (Section 1627 of the Public Health Service (PHS) Act).
HRSA’s Health Care and Other Facilities (HCOF) program provides earmarked funds to health-related facilities for construction-related activities and/or capital equipment purchases. Awarded facilities are required to provide a periodic (quarterly for construction-related projects, annually for equipment only projects) update of the status of the funded project until it is completed. The monitoring period averages about 3 years with some projects taking up to 5 years to complete. The information collected from these updates is vital to program management staff to determine whether projects are progressing according to the established timeframes, meeting deadlines established in the Notice of Grant Award (NGA), and drawing down funds appropriately. Information collected from these updates is also shared with the Division of Grants Management Operations (DGMO) and the Division of Engineering Services (DES) for their assistance in the overall evaluation of each project’s progress.
Currently, monitoring data are received in a narrative format in which grantees describe program status to date. Not all grantees provide narrative progress and the narratives do not provide identical standardized information. This information collection request is being submitted in order to collect standardized identical information from grantees on the progress of their projects.
2. Purpose and Use of Information
HRSA’s Healthcare Systems Bureau (HSB) has the primary responsibility for monitoring the HCOF projects. HRSA needs the standardized reports in order to conduct oversight of the project.
Grantees will be required to submit the following information: the estimated or actual start and completion dates of the project, project completion percentage, percentage of award drawn down, and a discussion of change orders, major problems, or notification of any change(s) in project scope. Design-only, and construction projects are required to submit reports on a quarterly basis. Equipment-only projects are required to submit reports on an annual basis.
The data will be used by HRSA to monitor grantees’ progress in completing their projects and will be useful in highlighting potential problems that may need to be addressed. These problems could include excess draw downs of grant funds, unapproved changes in scope, and undue delays in project completion. In addition, the status updates will provide a vehicle for the grantees to inform HRSA of administrative changes such as a change in the project contact person.
3. Use of Improved Information Technology
The form is fully electronic.
4. Efforts to Identify Duplication
The information requested is not available from any other source. The information we are requesting is specific to this funding award program and is unique to the program.
5. Involvement of Small Entities
The data collection activities do not significantly impact small entities.
6. Consequences if Information Collected Less Frequently
Congress, as well as the DGMO, requires Federal oversight to ensure that funds are used for their intended purpose. Without frequent monitoring, projects might prematurely draw down grant funds, projects might be delayed without HRSA program staff knowing the reasons, or projects might not be completed within the 5-year draw down limit. If construction projects were to be monitored less frequently, HRSA would be less able to remedy problems in a timely manner.
7. Consistency with the Guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.5(d)(2)
This action is consistent with the Guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.5(d)(2).
8. Consultation Outside the Agency
The notice required in 5 CFR 1320.8(d) was published in the Federal Register on February 6, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 24, Pages 5445-5446). No comments were received.
We contacted three grantees who provided comments on the burden and design of the form. Their comments were taken into consideration and are reflected in the burden estimates. The persons we contacted are as follows:
Fr. Thomas S. Acker, S.J.
Raleigh County Commission
116 1/2 North Heber St.
Beckley, WV 25801
(304) 929-2010
Dr. Steve Waller
University of South Dakota
414 East Clark Street
Vermillion, SD 57069
(605) 677-5157
Ms. Lynn Hanna
People's Clinic
3303 North Broadway
Boulder, CO 80304
(720) 565-4103
9. Remuneration of Respondents
Respondents will receive no remuneration.
Assurance of Confidentiality
The Privacy Act does not apply because these information collection requirements do not include collection of information on individuals; all information is aggregated to the facility level.
Questions of a Sensitive Nature
No questions of a sensitive nature are involved.
12. Estimate of Annualized Hour Burden
The following estimates of burden per response are based on comments from the grantees referenced in Section 8 that describes consultation outside of the agency.
The burden estimates shown below are based on the following estimates of the average number of facilities in each category over the next 3 years:
Total reporting facilities with remaining obligations: 918
Construction-related 395
Equipment only 523
ESTIMATE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION BURDEN
Project Type |
Number of Respondents |
Responses per Respondent |
Total Responses |
Hours per Response |
Total Burden Hours |
Construction-Related |
395 |
4 |
1,580 |
.5 |
790 |
Equipment Only |
523 |
1 |
523 |
.5 |
262 |
Total |
918 |
|
2,103 |
|
1,052 |
Basis for Estimates:
13. Estimates of Annualized Cost to Respondents
There are no capital or start up costs for this activity. Purchase of computers, testing equipment, etc., is not needed. Also, there are no operations and maintenance costs that would be required beyond normal staff time.
14. Estimates of Annualized Cost to the Federal Government
The estimated cost to the Federal Government to analyze and process monitoring reports is estimated to be 50.41 percent of 1 FTE at a GS-13 level, amounting to approximately $45,361.
15. Changes in Burden
This is a new activity.
16. Time Schedule, Publication and Analysis Plans
There are no plans to publish the results of the information collected in this report.
Exemption for Display of Expiration Date
No exemptions are requested.
Certification
The information collection fully complies with 5 CFR 1320.9. The required certifications are included in the package.
| File Type | application/msword |
| File Title | Uncompensated Services Assurance Report |
| Author | HRSA |
| Last Modified By | LWright-Solomon |
| File Modified | 2007-06-27 |
| File Created | 2007-05-30 |