Information Quality

Background
Section 515 of the Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2001 (Public Law 106-554; HR 5658) ("Information Quality Act") directed the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to issue government-wide guidelines that "provide policy and procedural guidance to Federal agencies for ensuring and maximizing the quality, objectivity, utility, and integrity of information (including statistical information) disseminated by Federal agencies." OMB Information Quality Guidelines (67 FR 8452-8460)were published in the Federal Register on February 22, 2002, to implement the Information Quality Act.

In compliance with OMB’s directives, the Department of the Interior (DOI) issued final Information Quality Guidelines (.pdf - 159 KB), that required each bureau to publish its own guidelines.

Indian Affairs Information Quality Guidelines
Indian Affairs (IA) is comprised of the Office of the Assistant Secretary—Indian Affairs (AS-IA), the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), and the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE).

All information disseminated by IA must comply with basic standards of quality to ensure and maximize its objectivity, utility, and integrity. IA will ensure that information disseminated is developed from reliable methods and data sources, and will ensure information quality at each stage of information development. In response to OMB and DOI Information Quality Guidelines, IA has published the following six directives within the Indian Affairs Manual (IAM) related to Information Quality (Part 10):

• General Overview, 10 IAM 1
• Quality of Disseminated Information, 10 IAM 2
• Scientific Integrity, 10 IAM 3
• Scientific Conduct, 10 IAM 4
• Peer Review, 10 IAM 5
• Requests for Correction and Administrative Appeals, 10 IAM 6

These six directives can be viewed at IAM Information Quality (Part 10).

Requests for Correction of Information
If you believe that any information IA has disseminated does not meet the OMB or DOI Information Quality Guidelines or IA directive 10 IAM 2, regarding Quality of Disseminated Information, you may file a request for correction at the address below, with a copy to the IA Office that disseminated the information.

Mailing Address:

Indian Affairs - Office of Information Technology
12201 Sunrise Valley Drive
Mail Stop - 244
Reston, VA 20192

Please include the information listed in 10 IAM 6, Section 1.3.A in your request for correction.

The OIMT-IA will notify you within ten (10) days of the receipt of your request to acknowledge receipt. The responsible office has sixty (60) days from its receipt of your request within which to respond.

Peer Review
Based on the review it has conducted, IA believes that it does not currently produce or sponsor the distribution of influential scientific information (including highly influential scientific assessments) within the definitions promulgated by the Office of Management and Budget. As a result, at this time IA has no agenda of forthcoming influential scientific disseminations to post on this website in accordance with OMB’s Information Quality Bulletin for Peer Review (.pdf - 263 KB).

Inquiries and Responses