U S Department of State

Evaluation of the Department of State's FOIA Processes for Requests Involving the Office of the Secretary U S Department of State

S/ES is responsible for coordinating searches for FOIA requests for records held by the Office of the Secretary. When a FOIA request of that nature is received by the Department, the Office of Information Programs and Services (IPS) within the Bureau of Administration notifies S/ES. S/ES reports its findings to IPS, which then communicates with the FOIA requester. OIG's past and current work demonstrates that Department leadership has not played a meaningful role in overseeing or reviewing the quality of FOIA responses. The searches performed by S/ES do not consistently meet statutory and regulatory requirements for completeness and rarely meet requirements for timeliness. S/ES currently searches Department email accounts only if a FOIA request mentions emails or asks for "all records," or if S/ES is requested to do so during the course of litigation. However, FOIA and Department guidance require searching email accounts when relevant records are likely maintained in these accounts. In addition, although FOIA requires agencies to respond to requests within 20 working days, some requests involving the Office of the Secretary have taken more than 500 days to process. These delays are due, in part, to the Department's insufficient provision of personnel to IPS to handle its caseload. These problems are compounded by the fact that S/ES FOIA responses are sometimes inaccurate. Officials in IPS and attorneys for the Department identified instances in which S/ES reported that records did not exist, even though it was later revealed that such records did exist. Procedural weaknesses in S/ES FOIA processes appear to be contributing to these deficiencies. For example, S/ES management is not monitoring search results for accuracy, and IPS has limited ability to conduct oversight. S/ES also lacks written policies and procedures for responding to FOIA requests. Finally, staff in S/ES and other components in the Office of the Secretary have not taken training offered by IPS to better understand their FOIA responsibilities.