OGIS Releases FOIA Compliance Self-Assessment Survey Results

self assessmentsWe are excited to announce the release of our analysis and observations of FOIA compliance issues based on the responses to FOIA questions included in the 2016 Records Management Self-Assessment (RMSA). The RMSA is a sophisticated agency self-assessment program developed and managed by the National Archives and Records Administration Office of the Chief Records Officer (CRO). Our partnership with the CRO on the RMSA has allowed OGIS to leverage over eight years of experience with conducting agency self-assessments and provided OGIS with the opportunity, for the first time since our doors opened in 2009, to gather comprehensive data about FOIA operations from almost every agency that is subject to FOIA

Reviewing FOIA policies and procedures for all administrative agencies subject to FOIA is a big job, and a key component of OGIS’s ongoing work to improve FOIA compliance across the government. To improve our understanding of FOIA compliance issues across the government, OGIS worked with the CRO to develop 11 questions about FOIA operations to include in the RMSA survey. The responses to the questions in the 2016 RMSA survey helped create a baseline for our understanding of the relationship between FOIA Officers and Federal Agency Records Officers and for the systems agencies do – or do not – have in place to identify information that could be proactively released. The questions and survey responses to the 2016 RMSA survey have also furthered our perspectives on observations in our agency compliance reports regarding program management, the use of technology, and communication with requesters. Please download the report to learn more about our observations and analysis of survey results.

We look forward to continuing this successful collaboration with the CRO in the future, and deeply appreciate the CRO’s willingness to work with us on this project. You can learn more about the RMSA and the CRO by visiting the National Archives’ Records Management Oversight and Reporting Program webpage and Records Express, the CRO’s blog.