In FY 2013, OGIS began looking at several specific issues regarding agency policies, procedures, and compliance, including FOIA fees and fee waivers, and the ways agencies process records related to immigration matters. OGIS also began a “Preventing Litigation” project, working with agencies on ways to reduce their chances of a request resulting in litigation.
GAO recommended that OGIS establish a time frame for completing and implementing a methodology that defines, among other things, the scope, schedule, criteria, and evaluation questions for reviewing Federal agencies’ FOIA policies, procedures, and compliance. OGIS had already begun creating a draft assessment framework, which will form one piece of OGIS’s expanded review methodology.
GAO’s recommendation mirrored that of the National Archives and Records Administration’s Inspector General (IG), which conducted
a routine review of OGIS in FY 2012 to determine whether OGIS was
adequately established and meets Congress’s intent. The IG report, completed in September 2012, found that OGIS meets the requirements set
forth in FOIA with regard to both review and dispute resolution. The IG found that “additional resources could significantly improve OGIS’s ability to address and meet its mission.”
In response to the GAO recommendations, NARA concurred with both
recommendations and will work to address them in FY 2014.
releases report on OGIS along with two Le - al — recommendations # September 18-20 ; ‘A Director Nisbet represents the National f z| Archives and Records Administration at the
biennial International Conference of Information qa Commissioners in Berlin | Ate
Patent drawing for R.H. Strong clock (NARA Identifier 7451701)
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