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A. Improve Communications with Requesters.
1) Outreach to Requester Community and Solicitation of Input.
- Chief FOIA Officer will hold public forum with requester community
after consultation with FOIA Liaison.
- Possibly deploy electronic suggestion box for requester community and
DOL agencies.
2) Acknowledgement Letters
- Chief FOIA Officer will prepare and distribute standardized
acknowledgment letters.
- All agencies will distribute and utilize or adopt the new
acknowledgment letter.
B. Improve Web Presence and Proactive Disclosure
1) Improve DOL FOIA Web site
- Evaluate DOL and agency FOIA Web site.
2) Required Affirmative Disclosure
- Agencies will develop and submit to the Chief FOIA Officer a plan for
improving their required affirmative disclosure of information.
3) Proactive Disclosure
- Agencies will identify and develop a plan for the posting of classes
of documents not legally required to be disclosed but that could be disclosed
proactively.
C. Improve FOIA Tracking and Control
1) Review
- Chief FOIA Officer will convene a working group including
stakeholding agencies to review the issue.
- FOIA working group will review tracking tools and identify agency
needs and requirements.
D. Increase use of Technology in FOIA Processing
1) Review
- Each agency is to review its current use of technology for FOIA
processing.
2) Implementation
- Each agency is to increase the use of technologies identified in its
study to the extent permissible with available resources.
3) Report
- Each agency is to report its findings to the Chief FOIA Officer.
E. Encourage and Improve Multi-track processing and Expedited
Processing
1) Review
- Each agency will review its multi-track processing and its handling
of expedited requests.
2) Report
- Each agency will report to the Chief FOIA Officer the results of the
study and outline any proposed changes in its processes.
3) Implementation
- To the extent changes can be made during CY 2006, each agency will
make the appropriate changes to its processes to increase the use of
multi-tracking and increase its efficiency in handling expedited requests.
F. Increase Appeals Capacity, Backlog Reduction and Improve
Timeliness
1) Initial Requests
- The Chief FOIA Officer will develop a standard definition of
"backlog" and a template for reporting backlogs.
- Each agency will develop and implement a backlog monitoring system
and report the implementation to the Chief FOIA Officer.
2) Appeals
- By December 31, 2006, the number of appeals completed and closed will
increase 61 percent over the 2005 baseline.
- By the end of CY 2006 the Chief FOIA Officer will assess the progress
made and determine whether additional measures are needed.
G. Enhance Staff Expertise and Training
1) Formal Training and Meetings
a) Review
- The Chief FOIA Officer will convene meetings of the Service Center
Staff to ascertain training needs and share best practices.
b) Report
- The Chief FOIA Officer will compile and disseminate a catalog of
available training materials.
c) Implementation
- Agencies will seek appropriate training to further augment the skill
and expertise of its FOIA staff.
2) Make Resource Material More Readily Available
- Agencies will make resource material such as the DOJ FOIA guide
available to all FOIA staff electronically.
A. Improve Communications with Requesters
1) Outreach to Requester Community and Solicitation of Input.
- Chief FOIA Officer will prepare for inclusion in the FOIA Annual
Report for 2006 an analysis of the agencies efforts to implement changes
recommended by the requester community.
- Agencies will assess and continue to take such actions as appropriate
to implement changes suggested by the requester community.
2) Communications Practices with Requesters
- Chief FOIA Officer will review agency communication practices and
determine if further steps are needed to improve communications with
requesters.
- All agencies will implement the recommended improvements.
B. Improve Web Presence and Proactive Disclosure
1) Improve DOL FOIA Web site
- Chief FOIA Officer will develop a plan to implement the needed
improvements.
2) Required Affirmative Disclosure
- Agencies will submit a report to the Chief FOIA Officer on their
progress in implementing their improvement plan.
- Agencies will discuss their plans with the Chief FOIA Officer, make
any adjustments, and implement the plan.
- Proactive Disclosure
- Agencies will implement their plan of improvement and communicate
their progress to the Chief FOIA Officer and the Public Liaison.
C. Improve FOIA Tracking and Control
- Working group will develop a plan on inadequacies, improvements, and
needed changes and report it to the Chief FOIA Officer.
- Chief FOIA Officer will present the plan of improvement to the
appropriate Department officials for action and implementation as
appropriate.
- Chief FOIA Officer will reconvene the working group and review the
plan and its execution and cure any persistent inadequacies.
- Working group will develop a report to the Chief FOIA Officer
identifying inadequacies and areas of improvement.
- Consider Department wide implementation.
D. Increase use of Technology in FOIA Processing
- Agencies will consider whether existing resources will allow further
automation of the processes identified in the report.
- Agencies shall continue to develop and deploy their improvement plan
and report the results to the Chief FOIA Officer.
E. Encourage and Improve Multi-track Processing and Expedited
Processing
- Agencies should continue to implement their improvement plans and
establish mechanisms for quality control to assure changes are maintained and
modified as needed.
F. Increase Appeals Capacity, Backlog Reduction and Improve
Timeliness
1) Initial Requests
- Agencies shall report backlogs, if any, to the Chief FOIA Officer
semi-annually.
2) Appeals
- By December 31, 2007, the number of appeals completed and closed will
increase 93 percent over the 2005 baseline.
- The Chief FOIA Officer will reassess the backlog reduction and
determine if additional measures are needed.
G. Enhance Staff Expertise and Training
1) Formal Training and Meetings.
- Agencies will develop, implement, and transmit to the Chief FOIA
Officer a plan ensuring that 100 percent of FOIA staff is provided an
opportunity to receive training.
Improvement Areas to Continue Beyond December 31, 2007
A. Improve Communications with Requesters
1) Outreach to Requester Community and Solicitation of Input
- Agencies shall continue to improve communications based on the
requester community feedback.
- Chief FOIA Officer will include in the FOIA Annual Report for 2007 a
report on the agency's response to input by the requester community.
B. Improve Web Presence and Proactive Disclosure
1) Improve DOL FOIA Web site
- FOIA Web site review and improvements will continue.
2) Required Affirmative Disclosure
- Agencies will continue to make further appropriate adjustments to
their affirmative disclosure improvement plans.
3) Proactive Disclosure
- Each succeeding year, agencies shall continue to identify documents
eligible for proactive disclosure and report such activities to the Chief FOIA
Officer.
- Continue to dynamically adjust agency plans in consultation with the
Chief FOIA Officer.
E. Encourage and Improve Multi-track Processing and Expedited
Processing
- Agencies will continue to deploy changes and implement a quality
control mechanism.
C. Increase Appeals Capacity, Backlog Reduction and Improve
Timeliness
1) Initial Requests
- Each agency shall continue to report to the Chief FOIA Officer on its
backlog, if any.
2) Appeals
- Backlog reduction will continue in 2008 and beyond.
D. Enhance Staff Expertise and Training
- Refresher courses will be offered continuously and new staff will
receive appropriate training.
- Agencies will report the results of their training activities to the
Chief FOIA Officer.
- The Chief FOIA Officer will continue to hold bi-annual "lessons
learned and best practices" meetings.
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