OMB details paperless demands

OMB Memo - Achieving Electronic Government: Instruction for Plans to Implement the Government Paperwork Elimination Act

The Office of Management and Budget in late July released a memo to agency

chief information officers outlining the information the CIOs must include

in their plans to move to an electronic government.

Under the Government Paperwork Elimination Act (GPEA), agencies must submit

a plan detailing how they will make it possible for citizens to interact

with them electronically whenever possible by October 2003.

OMB issued guidance on GPEA in April asking for each agency to submit plans

by Oct. 31, 2000. The new memo from John Spotila, director of the OMB Office

of Information and Regulatory Affairs, outlines the exact information agencies

must include and the goals they should address while planning.

"In their planning, agencies should re-evaluate how they do business by

updating business processes," the memo states. "They should consider automating

groups of processes that serve a common customer...and coordinating with

other agencies to achieve customer-focused approaches."

The plans must address:

* Transactions that collect information under the Paperwork Reduction Act

(PRA).

* Non-PRA-covered transactions.

* Interagency reporting requirements.

* Information products that agencies disseminate to the public.

* Other transactions that agencies use and are not covered in the above.

Agencies should make sure to include any additional resources they believe

will be necessary to implement the changes in their budget request, and

they should tie the needs and the plan into that request, Spotila wrote.

Agency reports under the Government Performance and Results Act should also

address progress in implementing GPEA and electronic government.