GAO: Agency public information centers should stress accuracy

The information provided to the public by government-operated contact centers could be enhanced if agencies focused more on accuracy and had better guidance on performance measurements and oversight practices, the Government Accountability Office concluded in a new report.

Practices to ensure the accuracy of information provided to the public by government agencies vary widely, according to the report (GAO-06-270). Furthermore, reviewers found, there is no governmentwide data on contact centers, which are enhanced call centers that also provide information through channels such as e-mail, postal mail, faxes and Web sites.

The report looked at contractor-run contact centers at the U.S. Postal Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, General Services Administration and departments of Defense, Labor and Education. GAO considered the use of four techniques for improving accuracy: regular review of the centers' information databases, monitoring of public contacts and center responses, post-inquiry satisfaction surveys and validation of contractor-prepared reports.

Only two contact centers -- operated by GSA and USPS -- used all four of these practices, GAO found, while a Defense Department center used only surveys to verify information accuracy.

"At some agencies, accuracy clearly does not have the same priority as other objectives, such as timeliness," the report stated.

GAO researchers also found that a lack of accurate governmentwide data on contact centers hindered the sharing of oversight practices. A Federal Procurement Data System code for call centers was not used between fiscal 2000 and fiscal 2004, they found, though OMB said this was the appropriate coding for contact center contracts.

An OMB survey of public information activities yielded unreliable results (the Defense Department reported no relevant activities), and a subsequent GSA study of that data was not representative of governmentwide activities, the report said.

Furthermore, GAO found gaps in efforts to enhance agencies' oversight capabilities. For example, FirstContact, a GSA program launched in July 2004 that awarded five contracts for contact center work, leaves development of performance metrics and oversight practices to individual agencies, the report said.

The report highlighted a GSA-organized interagency group on contracting, the Citizen Service Levels Interagency Committee, which published a report in September 2005 on performance metrics and best practices in contact center oversight, and recommended that OMB build on those initial efforts to formalize the sharing of performance metrics and best practices among agencies.

M.J. Pizzella, associate administrator of GSA's Office of Citizen Services and Communications, said the agency will roll out a Web site in the late spring aimed at creating an interagency "community of thought" on the subject.

OMB did not comment on GAO's report, but an official said the agency does not plan to finalize the GSA recommendations or issue formal governmentwide guidelines like those contained in the GSA committee's recommendations.

"This document…does not necessitate the establishment of formal guidance," an OMB official said. "OMB reviewed the report and encourages agencies to utilize it in analyzing new or existing contact centers," the official said.

The GAO reviewers also recommended that OMB clarify how agencies should code contact centers in the procurement data system to facilitate data-tracking.

Responding to the report, Chris Jahn, president of the Contract Services Association, an industry group, warned against carrying a quest for measurements too far. "Establishing metrics for evaluating performance is appropriate for good contract management," he said. "However, agencies should not lose the flexibility they need to meet the needs of taxpayers contacting them just for the sake of having a governmentwide standard."