Case Studies

The Challenge

All Federal Agencies must adhere to the information collection provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995, and to control paperwork collection burdens on the public, in compliance with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) regulation 5 Code of Federal Regulation Part 1320. Accordingly each federal agency must improve the quality of information it collects, uses, and disseminates, while also reducing the associated burdens that are imposed on the American public; a complex and detailed Information Collection Request (ICR) must be sent to and approved by OMB. Each agency is responsible for tracking its information collections and associated annual responses, hours, and costs.

The Solution

ICRAS provides federal agencies with the ability to electronically prepare and forward information collection requests to OMB, as required by the PRA. ICRAS can be used by an agency in a manner that mirrors the agency’s internal business practices for preparing, reviewing, and submitting ICRs to OMB. The system uses email alerts and reminders to ensure that preparers and reviewers receive real-time status of collections. In addition, ICRAS includes a full history of each ICR from creation to OMB approval, and tracks the status of the package as it is prepared and reviewed by multiple parties within the agency and OMB.

ICRAS provides an authenticated web interface for creating and/or uploading OMB PRA Information Collections and/or ICRs using, as applicable, OMB Part(s) 1 and 2 submission worksheets (i.e., OMB 83-I, 83-C, 83-E, and 83-D forms); supporting statements; Federal Register laws, statutes, and regulation citations; memorandums; and transmission of data via extensible markup language web services for OMB to review federal agency submissions, and OMB’s Notice of Action in reply to the submittal.

CTAC’s Role

Operations and maintenance of the application is provided through the Interagency Agreement (IAA) with the Service Provider and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on an annual basis to provide a range of support services, including the following as defined in the IAA:

• Software updates
• User documentation
• Help desk support
• Training

About the System

ICRAS is a Ruby on Rails custom built web-based enterprise-wide Oracle database system developed initially for HHS internal use but has subsequently grown into a multi-agency application that allows electronic data transmission to OMB. The application is data driven in that it provides the user with the necessary data to process ICRs electronically where the ICRs are stored in Oracle with associated metadata.

The Customer Base

ICRAS is currently being utilized by HHS and the Environmental Protection Agency.