Guidelines for Ensuring and Maximizing the Quality, Objectivity, Utility, and Integrity of Information Disseminated by the National Endowment for the ArtsThese Guidelines for Ensuring and Maximizing the Quality, Objectivity, Utility, and Integrity of Information Disseminated by the National Endowment for the Arts are prepared under the Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2001, Section 515(b), and are designed to ensure and maximize the quality, objectivity, utility and integrity of information disseminated by the Endowment. 1. The Endowment has adopted a basic standard of quality (including objectivity, utility, and integrity) for all information that it disseminates. The Endowment has taken appropriate steps to incorporate information quality criteria into Endowment information dissemination practices. 2. As a matter of good and effective agency information resources management, the Endowment reviews the quality (including the objectivity, utility, and integrity) of information before it is disseminated. Information quality is integral to every step of the Endowment's development of information, including creation, collection, maintenance, and dissemination. The Endowment substantiates the quality of the information it has disseminated through documentation or other means appropriate to the information. 3. Generally, the office disseminating the information, such as the Office of Communications, the Office of Policy Research & Analysis, the Office of Guidelines and Panel Operations, or the Office of Congressional Liaison, will be responsible for reviewing the quality of information before dissemination, with appropriate oversight by the Endowment's Chairman or the Chairman's designees. The originating offices will use internal peer reviews and other review mechanisms to ensure that disseminated information meets quality standards set forth herein, including objectivity, utility, and integrity in both presentation and substance. Each office is responsible for ensuring that the pre-dissemination review is performed and documented at a level appropriate for the type of information disseminated. 4. To facilitate citizen review, affected persons may seek and obtain, where appropriate, timely correction of information maintained and disseminated by the Endowment that does not comply with these Endowment guidelines or with OMB's guidelines at 67 Federal Register at 8452 (Feb. 22, 2002).
5. The Endowment will investigate and respond to requests for correction in a flexible manner, taking into consideration the nature and extent of the complaint, the nature and timeliness of the information involved, the significance of the correction to the use of the information, and the magnitude of the correction needed. Should the Endowment determine that a correction is necessary, appropriate responses might include personal contacts by letter or telephone, press releases, website postings, errata sheets in publications, or mass mailings to correct a widely disseminated error or address a frequently raised complaint. The Endowment is not required to change the content or status of information simply based on the receipt of a request for correction. For example, the Endowment need not respond substantively to requests that are frivolous or repetitive, concern information not within these guidelines, or from a person whom the information does not affect. 6. The Endowment will generally notify the requester, in writing, of the agency decision on whether and how any corrections within 60 calendar days of receipt of the request. If the request requires more than 60 calendar days to be resolved, the agency will inform the complainant that more time is required and indicate the reason why and an estimated decision date. If the requester does not agree with the agency's decision regarding corrective action, the requester may file for reconsideration by the Chairman within 30 days of the Endowment's decision. Such reconsideration requests will generally be resolved within 45 business days. 7. The Endowment's pre-dissemination review, under paragraphs 2-3, applies to information that the Endowment first disseminates on or after October 1, 2002. The Endowment's administrative mechanisms, under paragraphs 4-6, apply to information that the Endowment disseminates on or after October 1, 2002, regardless of when the Endowment first disseminated the information. 8. The Chief Information Officer of the National Endowment for the Arts or his designee is responsible for Endowment compliance with pre-dissemination review under these guidelines. The General Counsel of the National Endowment for the Arts is responsible for resolution of requests for correction. The Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts is responsible for resolution of requests for reconsideration. 9. On an annual fiscal-year basis, the Endowment will submit a report to the Director of OMB providing information (both quantitative and qualitative, where appropriate) on the number and nature of complaints received by the Endowment regarding Endowment compliance with these guidelines and how such complaints were resolved. The Endowment will submit these reports no later than January 1 of each following year, with the first report due January 1, 2004. 10. Agency Information Quality Standards and Definitions
1. distribution intended only for government employees or Endowment contractors, grantees, or applicants; including intra- or inter-agency use or sharing of government information; 2. responses to requests for Endowment records under the Freedom of Information Act, the Privacy Act, the Federal Advisory Committee Act or other similar law; or 3. distribution limited to correspondence with individuals or persons, press releases, archival records, public filings, subpoenas or adjudicative processes. 11. Information quality standards as described by OMB's final guidelines are incorporated by reference as agency policies and standards.
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National Endowment for the Arts · an independent federal agency
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