OMB to agencies: Get it right before you put it out

The Office of Management and Budget Wednesday issued its first-ever guidelines to ensure information delivered by federal agencies-from census data to weather forecasts-meets standards of quality and integrity.

The OMB guidelines require agencies to make information quality a performance goal and to develop a review process to ensure the integrity of information before it is released. Agencies must also develop their own standards for information quality that conform to OMB's guidelines.

Under the guidelines, citizens can ask for corrected versions of any information that violates these guidelines, but OMB told agencies to make certain the correction process does not bog down their operations.

"Agencies, in making their determination of whether or not to correct information, may reject claims made in bad faith or without justification," said John Graham, administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at OMB.

The guidelines create two new reporting requirements agencies must fulfill: By April 2002, agencies must craft their own standards of information quality and outline a process for correcting any information that fails to meet these standards. Starting in 2004, agencies are also required to deliver an annual report to OMB detailing how they responded to all information complaints they receive. Agency chief information officers are responsible for making sure agencies comply with OMB's guidelines.

OMB's guidelines implement Section 515 of the Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act for fiscal 2001.