FAS identified the following
potential improvement areas:
--Proactive disclosure of
information
--Forms of communications with requesters
--Process by which necessary cooperation is obtained from agency personnel
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NARRATIVE STATEMENT
SUMMARIZING RESULTS OF REVIEW
FAS consisted of five program
areas plus the Office of the Administrator. The FOIA officer resides in the
Officer of the Administrator. The five program areas had a designated
contact for processing FOIA requests. The FOIA officer logs in the request
and determines which program area should be assigned. The program area
contacts determine who in their program area should handle the request. In
fiscal year 2005, FAS responded to 44 requests, with 34 full releases, 6 no
records found, 3 full denials, and 1 referral to another agency. FAS had no
appeals. All of the denials for documents fell under exemption 4,
commercial or financial information. The median number of days to process a
request was 14.
Due to the small number of
requests, the agency does not use tracking software. The FOIA officer
encourages program areas to respond to requesters via email if possible and
to document the communication. The agency does not have a backlog.
The FAS Web page includes a
section titled “How to Make a FOIA Request to FAS.” The information advises
visitors that documents that they request could already be available online
without filing a request, and examples are provided. If the agency receives
three or more requests for the same documents, the material is posted
online.
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AREAS CHOSEN AS
IMPROVEMENT AREAS FOR PLAN FOR FAS
1. Proactive disclosure of
information
Goal: Encourage FAS
program areas to increase the amount of information available electronically
via the FAS Website.
Target completion: Ongoing.
Steps