Fiscal Year 1998 FOIA Annual Report
(Covers October 1, 1997 through September 30, 1998)
I. Basic Information Regarding Report
A. Name, title, address, and telephone number of person(s) to be contacted with questions about the report.
Joanne Paskar, Public Affairs Specialist
U.S. Agency for International Development
Information and Records Division
Room 2.7C
Washington, DC 20523-2701
Telephone: (202) 712-1217
B. Electronic address for report on the World Wide Web.
http://www.usaid.gov/about/foia
C. How to obtain a copy of the report in paper form.
Contact Ms. Joanne Paskar at the address or telephone number given in Section I.A.
above.
A. Names, addresses, and telephone numbers of all individual agency components and offices that receive FOIA requests.
Initial Requests:
U. S. Agency for International Development
Information and Records Division
Room 2.07C
Washington, DC 20523-2701
TELEPHONE: (202) 712-0960
TELEPHONE FAX: (202) 216-3070
Appeals:
U.S. Agency for International Development
Director of the Office of Administrative Services
Room 4.06B
Washington, DC 20523-4601
TELEPHONE: (202) 712-4410
TELEPHONE FAX: (202) 216-3369
B. Brief description of the agency's response-time ranges.
During FY98, the median processing time for initial requests was 36 days. Not all requests
took 36 days to process. Requests for readily available documents that involved little or no
review were processed much faster -- within a few days in some cases. Other requests took
longer to process for a variety of reasons. Some requesters asked for a large volume of
documents that had to be located, photocopied, and reviewed. USAID is an international
organization that has many overseas offices. Delays in our response time occurred when
documents had to be transported from the overseas offices to Washington. USAID received many
requests for procurement-related documentation, especially for contract and grant proposals.
Such requests were often time-consuming and labor-intensive because they involved repeated
discussions with contractors/grantees concerning the competitive ramifications of releasing
the requested information.
C. Brief description of why some requests are not granted.
USAID sometimes was required to withhold requested information under one or more of the
FOIA's exemptions. The number of instances in which USAID used an exemption in FY98 are listed
in Section V.B.3. Exemptions 3 and/or 4 normally were used to protect commercial or financial
information provided by contractors and grantees. Exemption 5 was used to protect vital
deliberative-process information or attorney-client information. Exemption 6 was used to
protect the privacy of individuals named in documents. At times, a request is not fulfilled
for an administrative reason. The various types of administrative reasons are listed in
Section V.B.4.
III. Definitions of Terms and Acronyms Used in the Report
A. Agency-specific acronyms or other terms.
IRD - Information and Records Division
USAID - U.S. Agency for International Development
B. Basic terms, expressed in common terminology.
- FOI/PA request -- Freedom of Information Act/Privacy Act request. A FOIA request
is generally a request for access to records concerning a third party, an organization, or a
particular topic of interest. A Privacy Act request is a request for records concerning
oneself; such requests are also treated as FOIA requests. (All requests for access to records,
regardless of which law is cited by the requester, are included in this report.)
- Initial Request -- a request to a federal agency for access to records under
the Freedom of Information Act.
- Appeal -- a request to a federal agency asking that it review at a higher
administrative level a full denial or partial denial of access to records under the Freedom
of Information Act, or any other FOIA determination such as a matter to pertaining to
fees.
- Processed Request or Appeal -- a request or appeal for which an agency has taken
a final action on the request or the appeal in all respects.
- Multi-track processing -- a system in which simple requests requiring relatively
minimal review are placed in one processing track and more voluminous and complex requests
are placed in one or more other tracks. Requests in each track are processed on a
first-in/first-out basis. A requester who has an urgent need for records may request
expedited processing (see below).
- Expedited processing -- an agency will process a FOIA request on an expedited
basis when a requester has shown an exceptional need or urgency for the records which warrants
prioritization of his or her request over other requests that were made earlier.
- Simple request -- a FOIA request that an agency using multi-track processing
places in its fastest (nonexpedited) track based on the volume and/or simplicity of records
requested.
- Complex request -- a FOIA request that an agency using multi-track processing
places in a slower track based on the volume and/or complexity of records requested.
- Grant -- an agency decision to disclose all records in full in response to a
FOIA request.
- Partial grant -- an agency decision to disclose a record in part in response
to a FOIA request, deleting information determined to be exempt under one or more of the
FOIA's exemptions; or a decision to disclose some records in their entireties, but to
withhold others in whole or in part.
- Denial -- an agency decision not to release any part of a record or records
in response to a FOIA request because all the information in the requested records is
determined by the agency to be exempt under one or more of the FOIA's exemptions,
or for some procedural reason (such as because no record is located in response to
a FOIA request).
- Time limits -- the time period in the Freedom of Information Act for an agency
to respond to a FOIA requests (ordinarily 20 working days from proper receipt of a
"perfected" FOIA request).
- "Perfected" request -- a FOIA request for records which adequately
described the records sought, which has been received by the FOIA office of the agency or
agency component in possession of the records, and for which there is no remaining question
about the payment of applicable fees.
- Exemption 3 statute -- a separate federal statute prohibiting the disclosure of
a certain type of information and authorizing its withholding under FOIA subsection
(b)(3).
- Median number -- the middle, not average, number. For example, of 3, 7, and
14, the median number is 7.
- Average number -- the number obtained by dividing the sum of a group of numbers
by the quantity of numbers in the group. For example of 3, 7, and 14, the average number
is 8.
IV. Exemption 3 Statutes
A. List of Exemption 3 statutes relied on by agency during current fiscal year.
41 U.S.C. 253b(m)
National Security Act of 1947
- Brief description of type(s) of information withheld under each statute.
41 U.S.C. 253b(m) - Prohibits release of proposal information submitted by a contractor
in response to the requirements of a competitive solicitation unless the proposal information
is set forth or incorporated by reference in a resulting contract.
National Security Act of 1947 - protects from disclosure intelligence sources and
methods.
- Statement of whether a court has upheld the use of each statute.
USAID has not been involved in litigation involving the use of the above two statutes.
V. Initial FOIA/PA Access Requests
A. Numbers of initial requests.
- Number of requests pending as of end of FY97: 68
- Number of requests received during FY98: 294
- Number of requests processed during FY98: 263
- Number of requests pending as of end of FY98: 99
B. Disposition of initial requests.
- Number of total grants: 117
- Number of partial grants: 76
- Number of denials: 70
- number of times each FOIA exemption used (counting each exemption once per request)
(1) Exemption 1: 3
(2) Exemption 2: 0
(3) Exemption 3: 15
(4) Exemption 4: 51
(5) Exemption 5: 17
(6) Exemption 6: 39
(7) Exemption 7(A): 1
(8) Exemption 7(B): 0
(9) Exemption 7(C): 5
(10) Exemption 7(D): 1
(11) Exemption 7(E): 0
(12) Exemption 17(F): 0
(13) Exemption 8: 0
(14) Exemption 9: 0
- Other reasons for nondisclosure (total): 76
- no records: 34
- referrals: 0
- request withdrawn: 17
- fee-related reason: 18
- records not reasonably described: 0
- not a proper FOIA request for some other reason: 0
- not an agency record: 2
- duplicate request: 1
- other reasons: 4
Reasons: merging of requests; provision of requested information by another
USAID source.
VI. Appeals of Initial Denials of FOIA/PA Requests
A. Number of appeals.
- Number of appeals received during FY98: 8
- Number of appeals processed during FY98: 9
B. Disposition of appeals.
- Number completely upheld: 3
- Number partially reversed: 4
- Number completely reversed: 2
- number of times each FOIA exemption used (counting each exemption once per appeal)
(1) Exemption 1: 0
(2) Exemption 2: 0
(3) Exemption 3: 0
(4) Exemption 4: 1
(5) Exemption 5: 2
(6) Exemption 6: 1
(7) Exemption 7(A): 0
(8) Exemption 7(B): 0
(9) Exemption 7(C): 0
(10) Exemption 7(D): 0
(11) Exemption 7(E): 0
(12) Exemption 7(F): 0
(13) Exemption 8: 0
(14) Exemption 9: 0
- Other reasons for nondisclosure (total): 4
- no records: 2
- referrals: 0
- request withdrawn: 2
- fee-related reason: 0
- records not reasonably described: 0
- not a proper FOIA request for some other reason: 0
- not an agency record: 0
- duplicate request: 0
- other (specify): 0
VII. Compliance with Time Limits Status of Pending Requests
A. Median processing time for requests processed during the year.
- Simple requests (if multiple tracks used) - Multiple tracks not used.
- Complex requests (specify for any and all tracks used)
- number of requests processed: 263
- median number of days to process: 36
- Requests accorded expedited processing.
- number of requests processed: 0
- median number of days to process: N/A
B. Status of pending requests.
- Number of requests pending as of end of current fiscal year (Number from Line V.A.4.):
99
- Median number of days that such requests were pending as of that date: 149
VIII. Comparison with Previous Year(s) (Optional):
For the FY98 FOIA Annual Report, USAID is not providing a comparison with prior-year
performance information. The statistical performance measurements that are now used are
very different from prior-year measurements. Any comparison would be of little value.
IX. Costs/FOIA Staffing
A. Staffing levels.
- Number of full-time FOIA personnel: 6
- Number of personnel with part-time or occasional FOIA duties (in total work-years):
1.5
- Total number of personnel (in work-years): 7.5
B. Total costs (including staff and all resources).
- FOIA processing (including appeals): $393,200.00
- Litigation-related activities (estimated): Not tracked
- Total costs: $393,200.00
- Comparison with previous year(s) (including percentage of change) (optional) - Data not
available.
X. Fees
This includes charges for search, review, document duplication, and any other direct
costs permitted under agency regulations.
- Total amount of fees collected by agency for processing requests: $443.00
- Percentage of total costs: .0011266%
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