GSA to study agencies’ service to citizens

Officials overseeing the General Services Administration's USA Services e-government initiative are launching a survey of 300 government entities to measure how they are responding to the information needs of citizens.

The results of the online survey, which will be completed in September, will be used to suggest ways for agencies to improve methods of contacting citizens. They also will allow GSA officials to see which agencies are doing the best job of meeting information and service needs.

The results will likely be published in some form in November, said Martha Dorris, deputy associate administrator for the Office of Citizen Services, which oversees the USA Services initiative. They will be compared with a 2004 assessment, allowing agencies to gauge the impact of changes made over the last two years.

The survey will focus largely on agency use of call centers, e-mail response and interactive Web pages, Dorris said.

"One of the basic things we're trying to accomplish is just getting an inventory. What agencies are providing citizen services?" said Stuart Willoughby, USA Services program manager. "Once we have a better feel for the amount of activities out there and the needs, challenges and obstacles they face in responding to citizens, then we can do more things to help them."

The survey was designed and will be conducted by DPRA Inc., a Rosslyn, Va.-based company, under a five-month contract worth $67,000.

"I encourage all agencies and bureaus to participate in this governmentwide assessment," Dorris said. "The more information collected, the more useful the results in helping to make government ever more responsive to the taxpayer."

Dorris said as results are evaluated, program officials will look for ways in which agencies could improve customer service, such as conducting customer satisfaction surveys or evaluating the cost of responding to the needs of citizens through USA Services' cost calculator.

Launched in 2001 as one of the original projects in the Office of Management and Budget's President's Management Agenda e-government initiative, USA Services is seeking to become the single access point for government services through a contact center and FirstGov.gov.

USA Services was used as a central site for official government information during various high-profile incidents, including Hurricane Katrina and the Veterans Affairs Department data breach.

The initiative's portal, FirstGov.gov, was recently named the top-ranked Web site in Brown University's annual report on state and federal e-government.

In 2005, USA Services had more than 230 million public contacts, including 8.6 million telephone calls through 1-800-FED-INFO, 8.2 million government publications distributed through the Federal Citizen Information Center in Pueblo, Colo., and another 179 million contacts through FirstGov.gov.