Gao 06 1022t Freedom Of Information Act

GAO-06-1022T Freedom of Information Act: Preliminary Analysis of Processing Trends Shows Importance of Improvement Plans

The Freedom of Info. Act (FOIA) establishes that fed. agencies must provide access to their info., enabling the public to learn about gov¿t. operations & decisions. The act requires that agencies report annually to the Attorney Gen., giving specific info. about their FOIA operations, such as numbers of requests received & processed & median processing times. Also, a recent Exec. Order (EO) directs agencies to develop plans to improve FOIA operations, incl. decreasing backlog. For this study, the author examined the status & trends of FOIA processing at 25 major agencies as reflected in annual reports, as well as the extent to which improvement plans contain the elements emphasized by the EO. Includes recommendations. Charts.

This is a print on demand edition of a hard to find publication. The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) establishes that federal agencies must provide the public with access to government information, enabling them to learn about government operations and decisions. To help ensure proper implementation, the act requires that agencies annually report specific information about their FOIA operations, such as numbers of requests received and processed and other statistics. In work reported from 2001 to 2008, the auditor examined the annual reports for major agencies, describing the status of reported implementation and any observable trends. This testimony discusses previous work on FOIA implementation, as well as on selected changes in the FOIA landscape resulting from legislation, policy, and guidance.