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Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 12. Mars 2007 / Time Line March 12, 2007
Version 3.503/12/2007
National Security Archive Update, March 12, 2007
File not found : Agencies violate law on online
information
Washington D.C., 12 March 2007 - Ten years after Congress enacted
the Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments (E-FOIA), only
one in five federal agencies actually complies with the law,
according to a new survey released today during Sunshine Week by
the National Security Archive.
Passed in 1996 and effective in 1997, E-FOIA ordered federal
agencies to post key records online, provide citizens with detailed
guidance on making information requests, and use new information
technology to publish information proactively. The act's intent:
Expand public access and reduce the burden of FOIA requests.
But most federal agencies do not follow the law, according to the
National Security Archive's government-wide audit, "File Not
Found," conducted with support from the John S. and James L. Knight
Foundation. The Knight Open Government Survey systematically
reviewed agency Web sites to cover all 91 federal agencies that
have Chief FOIA Officers and the additional 58 agency components
each of which handles more than 500 FOIA requests a year.
Key findings are:
* Only one in five federal agencies (21 percent) posts on the Web
all four categories of records that the law specifically
requires;
* Only one in 16 agencies (6 percent) posts all ten elements of
essential FOIA guidance;
* Only 36 percent of agencies provide the required indexes of
records;
* Only 26 percent of agencies provide online forms for submitting
FOIA requests;
Many agency Web links are missing or just wrong - one FOIA fax
number checked in the Knight Survey actually rang in the maternity
ward of a military base hospital.
"Federal agencies are flunking the online test and keeping us in
the dark," said Thomas Blanton, the Archive's director. "Some
government sites just link to each other in an endless empty
loop."
"Public access on the Web to government information is the only
long-term solution to the backlogs and delays that undermine the
FOIA today," said the Archive's general counsel, Meredith Fuchs.
"This audit plus Congressional oversight should provide a wake-up
call to the agencies."
Fuchs cited the Education Department and NASA as "E-Stars" with
excellent FOIA Web sites, and the Air Force, Immigration and
Customs Enforcement, and Veterans Affairs as among the dozen
"E-Delinquents." Last week, the Archive faxed the top FOIA officer
at each of the E-Delinquents with advance notice of the Survey and
the critical findings specific to that agency.
"It's appropriate that this important news is being released during
Sunshine Week, when millions of Americans will be able to see it,"
said Eric Newton, vice president of the journalism program at the
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. "People need to know when
their government is not obeying its own laws."
The Emmy- and George Polk Award-winning National Security Archive
at the George Washington University has carried out five
government-wide audits of FOIA performance over the last five
years, prompting multiple Congressional hearings, compelling
agencies to clean up their backlogs of oldest requests, and
providing evidence for bipartisan reform legislation now pending in
the Congress.
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation promotes journalism
excellence worldwide and invests in the vitality of the U.S.
communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Since 1950
the foundation has granted nearly $300 million to advance
journalism quality and the freedom of expression.
03/12/2007
CONTRACTS from the United States Department of Defense
Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, Sunnyvale, Calif., is being
awarded $135,000,000 for modification PH0005 under previously
awarded cost-plus-incentive-fee contract (N00030-06-C-0100) to
provide for TRIDENT II (D5) life extension strategic programs
alteration development. Work will be performed in Sunnyvale,
Calif., and work is expected to be completed Sep 2008.Contract
funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year, FY
2007.Strategic Systems Programs, Arlington, Va., is the contract
activity.
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