Information Quality Guidelines

Background

On This Page

Background

Scope and Applicability

Complaint and Appeals Process

How to File a Complaint or Appeal

On December 21, 2000 Congress passed Section 515 of the Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2001 (the Act). OMB issued final guidance for implementing the Act, which required all Federal agencies to:

Issue information quality guidelines ensuring and maximizing the quality, objectivity, utility, and integrity of information, including statistical information, disseminated by the Department
Establish administrative mechanisms allowing affected persons to seek and obtain correction of information maintained and disseminated by the Department that does not comply with the OMB guidelines
Report to the Director of OMB the number and nature of complaints received regarding compliance with the OMB guidelines, including how the complaints were resolved.

For further information, see the full text of the Department of Labor's Information Quality Guidelines.

Scope and Applicability

The information quality guidelines are intended, within the context of laws administered and enforced by DOL, to meet the data quality objectives set forth in OMB’s guidelines. They are intended to improve the internal management of the Federal Government. They are not intended to impose any binding requirements or obligations on DOL or the public or to create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law by a party against the United States, its agencies, officers, or any person. They are not intended to provide any right to judicial review.

These guidelines reflect this Department's commitment to information quality as an important management objective that takes its place alongside other Departmental objectives, such as ensuring the success of agency missions, observing budget resource priorities and restraints, and providing information to the public.

These guidelines do not apply to the following:

Information intended to be limited to distribution to government employees, or DOL contractors, or grantees
Government information intended to be limited to intra- or inter-agency use or sharing of information, such as strategic plans, performance plans, program reports, operating plans, or budgets
Responses to requests for Departmental records under the Freedom of Information Act, the Privacy Act, the Federal Advisory Committee Act, or other similar laws
Correspondence or other communications with individuals or organizations
Press Releases (except where the press release itself is the primary source of the information)
Congressional testimony
Archival records
Public filings
Dissemination of information through subpoenas or adjudicative processes, such as those recognized under the Administrative Procedure Act or established pursuant to regulation; provided, however, that information originally disseminated through such vehicles could subsequently become subject to these guidelines to the extent it is re-disseminated more broadly through other vehicles.
Information clearly represented as opinion and not an official agency or Departmental representation
Policy guidance recommendations or statements or summaries of agency policies, procedures, or programs
Statements of legal policy or interpretation, including briefs filed with courts or administrative bodies
Final agency decisions, settlements in litigation and descriptions of these settlements, or determinations of legal force and effect, such as wage determinations.

Complaint and Appeals Process

Because EBSA is committed to information dissemination programs based on high standards of quality, it recognizes the value of public input. EBSA therefore encourages the affected public to suggest improvements in Departmental information quality practices and to contact it when particular disseminated information may not meet the OMB guidelines and the guidelines set forth in DOL’s Information Quality Guidelines. While EBSA believes that in most cases, informal contacts would be appropriate, affected persons may wish to resolve concerns about information in a more structured way and may choose to follow a more formal process. Affected persons may submit such complaints and appeals to the contact point for EBSA. The purpose of the information complaint and appeal process is to deal with information quality matters, not to resolve underlying substantive policy or legal issues.

As is the case with other provisions of these guidelines, the process is intended to improve the internal management of the Federal Government. It is not intended to create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law by a party against the United States, its agencies, officers, or any person. It is not intended to provide any right of judicial review. Concerns regarding information in a rulemaking must, except as provided below, be presented in the rulemaking in accordance with the rulemaking’s procedures.

We will try to respond to complaints and appeals within sixty (60) days of their receipt, unless they deem a response within this time period to be impracticable. If we believe that more time is required to decide how to respond to a complaint or appeal, we will estimate the time needed and notify the complainant within the 60-day period of the reasons for the delay and the time that it estimates that a decision will be reached. Once the agency had decided how to address the complaint, we will notify the complainant.

If a complainant is dissatisfied with the initial response to the complaint, he or she may submit an appeal. A complainant may appeal within forty five (45) days of the date the agency notified the complainant how it would handle the complaint or one hundred and five (105) days from the date on which an agency or agencies first received the complaint, whichever is later. The appeal request should contain the same contact and descriptive information that was provided in the original complaint and the specific reasons why the initial agency response was not satisfactory. Once an appeal decision has been rendered by the agency, it should notify the complainant.

How to File a Complaint or Appeal

Affected persons who believe disseminated information may not meet the OMB guidelines and the guidelines set forth in DOL’s Information Quality Guidelines and who wish to file a complaint or appeal regarding EBSA information should:

Information_Quality_Official.EBSA@dol.gov

U.S. Department of Labor
Employee Benefits Security Administration
Information Quality Official
200 Constitution Avenue, NW, Suite N-5459
Washington, DC 20210

Please include the following information regarding your complaint:

Identify yourself and provide a postal or e-mail address where you may be reached
Identify, as specifically as possible, the information in question, including, if possible, the name of the document or publication and where the information is located on EBSA’s Internet site, if applicable
Indicate how you are affected by the information about which you are complaining
Carefully describe the nature of the complaint, including an explanation of why you believe the information does not comply with OMB or Departmental guidelines
Describe the change requested and the reason why EBSA should make the change.

An appeal request should contain the same contact and descriptive information that was provided in the original complaint and the specific reasons why the initial agency response was not satisfactory.

Failure to include this information may result in a complainant not receiving a response to the complaint or greatly reducing the usefulness or timeliness of any response. Complainants should be aware that they bear the burden of establishing that they are affected persons and showing the need and justification for the correction they are seeking, including why the information being complained about does not comply with applicable guidelines. Also note that EBSA may choose not to respond to complaints that are frivolous or unlikely to have substantial future impact.