Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Cinda Harrold
Franklin University
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was designed to fully or partially disclose
documents and information held by the United States government thereby increasing the
transparency and openness of legislative functions and actions. The law was approved in 1966
and has been amended three times since then (in 1996, 2002, and 2007) (U.S., 2008). The
Freedom of Information Act defines which records are subject to disclosure and delineates
procedures for disclosing the information and records related to agencies and departments of the
executive branch of government including cabinet and military departments, government (or
government-controlled) corporations, and regulatory agencies. The FOIA does not apply to the
federal judiciary, private businesses, elected officials of the federal government (such as the
President), or state and local governments (U.S., 2008). The compliance with FOIA must
delicately balance what the public has a right to know versus what the public cannot know due to
While the intent behind the Freedom of Information Act is a good and just cause,
compliance with the act has both negative and positive effects for the public as well as the
information services industry. Even though the FOIA details steps for providing the information
to the public, the procedures are not followed consistently from agency to agency. The public
has little recourse against those agencies that fail to comply with FOIA, other than to seek relief
in the court system by filing injunctions (Pastika, Klaper, & Desai, n.d.). Agencies must provide
consistent, ongoing training in a manner that will produce reliable output from employees. This
should include entire reviews of the FOIA such that all information providers are aware of which
The Freedom of Information Act is a good way for citizens to become involved in
government matters at all levels. Providing records at nominal fees and understanding which
information should be provided will ensure a smoother transition for the public (Transportation,
2005). Citizens have a right to monitor the government activities to see if they are in the best
interest of the public as well as making knowledgeable political decisions. Hindrances such as
excessive access fees and lack of understanding of which information should be provided will
prevent the public from openly and freely discussing public issues.
Act in that information systems and software must be modified accordingly to enable records to
be provided and distributed as well as protecting secure information and data from being
revealed. All forms and records must be digitized whether they are federal contracts, grants,
requests for information can build up databases, such as copies of all correspondence to and from
members of Congress, that are fully searchable on the internet. However, occasional roadblocks,
such as providing scanned unsearchable images of electronic files, crop up from agencies
deliberately misinterpreting the FOIA or unfortunately lacking the technical capability and
2005).
The benefits of the Freedom of Information Act outweigh the costs from the general
public point of view (Baltzan, & Phillips, 2009). The government is held accountable to the
people and cannot pass any secret regulations or laws. The FOIA improves the credibility of the
government to its citizens as well as likely increasing the chances for making better decisions
knowing that the public at some point will have access to the documents. Having this type of
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transparency in the government allows Mr. Joe Q. Public the chance to make sure that the
agencies are operating in his best interests. If he is unhappy with their actions, he can take steps
to change legislation or restructure the way those agencies interact with the government, the
laws, or regulations. By examining budgets and contracts, the public can hold the government
accountable for every penny of their tax dollars and bring to light irresponsible decisions that led
While compliance with FOIA benefits the public, the cost can hamper the governmental
entities. Several hundred million dollars are spent every year by the governmental agencies to
provide information, sometimes free-of-charge on a website, to the public per the FOIA mandate
(Davis, 2008). Additional costs can arise when the agencies have to review the records for
accuracy and security. The information services industry can assist with this duty by providing
software applications to automate some of these tasks, thereby realizing cost savings related to
the reduction in manual efforts. The FOIA also requires that all agencies report FOIA activities
to the Attorney General on an annual basis (Freedom, 2005). This is another opportunity for the
information services industry to help. More frequently the government is turning to solutions
from third parties for these types of services rather than relying on internal staff that may not
Freedom of Information Act requirements has impacts on the collection, storage, and
erasure of data, information, and records which impact cost (Allison, 2008). Agencies must obey
data retention periods which can increase hardware costs including maintenance and purchase of
newer technology. In order to the meet the terms of the FOIA, the government must also follow
the procedures for the destruction of records and implement quality procedures that verify the
data has been destroyed. Collecting the data requires the least amount of effort, but later morphs
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into maintaining the data which puts a much more significant drain on resources (Huber, 2004).
If the data is not maintained it will become worthless, and costs to revive or update the data will
increase exponentially depending upon the age of the data. Development of document
management systems including document imaging, conversion into searchable text, and
knowledge management by the information services industry is the best way for an agency to
Information services must be careful to separate data and information that is required to
be publically disclosed from that which is required to be kept private. Requests for information
are usually taken in written form and then verified by both a person as well as software to weed
out requests for private information (Lithgow, 2008). The agency then utilizes software to
search for the pertinent records, assemble the data, and transmit the information to the requestor.
However, over time, requests have piled up and some agencies have bigger backlogs of requests
than others (Bush, 2008). Costs to enforce internal controls have risen and it appears that the
information services industry has been able to contribute little to reducing the workload. From
the information services industry point of view, the costs of FOIA outweigh the benefits.
On the other side, agencies must also implement safeguards that ensure the information
allowed to be submitted to the public is not prevented from being transmitted (Ogden, 2008).
These precautions are not easily handled by technology at the moment. Internal controls for
monitoring compliance with the Freedom of Information Act are required to produce consistent
results. Sensitive information must not be inappropriately disclosed and public information must
compliance with the FOIA must be constantly reevaluated and new controls established. New
definitions of data, records, and information emerge as new technology is born. Information
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services can best profit from compliance with FOIA by making sure that their systems and
software support easy access to and retrieval of documents, records, data, and information. Data
warehouses and architectural design enhancements allow for correct storage and manipulation of
Is the public willing to foot the bill for compliance with FOIA? I believe so. As a
citizen, I place more value on the access to governmental information than the cost to maintain
and provide such data. I am willing to pay higher taxes in order to have the ability to retrieve
this information. Without such monitoring of governmental activities by the public, the
government would be much more likely to make poor decisions and spend the remaining
taxpayer monies unwisely. While some technology costs are increasing, other technology costs,
such as data storage, are decreasing. The tradeoff between new technology and improved
functionality should result in an overall lower increased cost and therefore a greater return on
investment. Leveraging technology provided by the information services companies is the best
References
Baltzan, P., & Phillips, A. (2009). Business Driven Information Systems. (2nd ed.). New York:
McGraw-Hill Professional.
http://search.ebscohost.com
http://search.ebscohost.com
Davis, C. (2008). Good news for foia. IRE Journal, 31(2), 15. http://search.ebscohost.com
(2005). Freedom of Information Act: public bodies struggling to meet demand? Records
Huber, N. (2004). Document management systems aid compliance. Computer Weekly, 18.
http://search.ebscohost.com
Lithgow, T. (2008). Security tightens after GP pay leak. Pulse, 68(7), 10.
http://search.ebscohost.com
Ogden, D. (2008). Skeletons in the e-cupboard: how census law is changing with the impact of
digitization and the freedom of information act 2000. Legal Information Management,
Pastika, T., Klaper, S., & Desai, R. (n.d.). Citizens advocacy center freedom of information act
http://www.citizenadvocacycenter.org/Reports/FreedomOfInformationAct.pdf
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(2005). Transportation security administration: clear policies and oversight needed for
http://search.ebscohost.com
http://www.zlti.com/resources/docs/Rules%20and
%20Regulations/ZL.RR.USFreedomofInformationAct.pdf