Freedom of Information Act FY 2010 Annual Report

Changes This Year

• OPEN Government Act in 2007 added many more calculations to the FOIA Annual

Report starting in FY08 (last year’s report)• No new information this year• We have designed a new template for the component annual report

• More guidance included• Re-formatted for better understanding

Annual Report Template

• Section 1: Consultations• Section 2: Annual Production Rates• Section 3: Disposition of All Incoming Processed Requests• Section 4: Number of Times Exemptions Applied• Sections 5-7: Processed (Closed) Requests• Section 8: Pending (Open) Requests• Sections 9-13: Appeals and Annual Production Rates• Section 14: Requests for Expedited Processing• Section 15: Requests for Fee Waivers• Sections 16-18: Personnel, Costs and Fees Collected

GENERAL GUIDANCE POINTS

• Do not include any requests processed exclusively under the Privacy Act

• Consultations should be tracked separately from initial requests

• Data for initial requests must be categorized into Simple, Complex, Expedited and

Non-Perfected

• Any request received and closed on the same day, Processing Time is “1” or “<1”. • NOTE: “0” is not allowed in these calculations

• All “Days Pending” calculations for open requests are from the date received through the end of the Fiscal Year (9/30/2010)

• NOT the day the report is completed.

GENERAL GUIDANCE POINTS

• Each processed initial request may have only 1 (one) disposition recorded

• Priority of dispositions is with information released, and then appeal rights: • Full Grant or Partial Grant/Partial Denial • Denied in Full based on exemptions • No Records • All other reasons

Example 1: A FOIA request was granted in part, while the rest was referred, the disposition recorded would be Partial Grant.

Example 2: An office responded to a FOIA request with a No Records response and referred the case to another office, the disposition would be recorded as No Records.

Section 1: Consultations

• Definition: Procedure whereby the agency responding to a FOIA requests first forwards a record to another agency (or component) for its review

• This is the only section in which Consultations should be counted.

As reported in previous FY Pending request at start of FY

Section 1: Consultations

• 1.a.1 and 1.a.2 should be the same number (end-of-year = beginning of year)• If not, explanation is needed (case reopened, error in last year’s report, etc)

• 1.a.2 + 1.a.3 – 1.a.4 must equal 1.a.5• Example: 3 + 11 – 13 = 1

• 1.c: Number of days pending from the date of receipt to 9/30/2010 (end of FY)

3 11 13 1

03/19/2010

144

3

Section 1: Consultations Examples of Errors from Last Year

0 1 2 0 0

3/11/08

5

Section 2: Annual Production Rates

• All “purported” FOIA requests• Includes both perfected and non-perfected, initial FOIA requests• Do not count Privacy Act requests or Consultations• 2.a.3: Include requests pending over 20 working days

• If any numbers from last fiscal year changed please note them here

849

844

22

939

854

63

Section 2: Annual Production Rates

• If there are any adjustments in reported numbers, explain in 2.d

849

844

22

939

854

63

850

Case was incorrectly excluded from last year’s report as a Privacy Act request

845

13 of the 19 DHS components reported adjustments in their

numbers last year! 11 due to “reporting errors in

FY07”

Section 2: Annual Production Rates

• 2.b.1 and 2.b.2 should be the same number• If not, explanation is needed (case reopened, error in last year’s report, etc)

• 2.b.2 + 2.b.3 – 2.b.4 must equal 2.b.5• Example: 41 + 939 – 854 = 126

39 41 939 854 126

Two cases reopened

Section 2: Annual Production RatesExamples of Errors from Last Year

(not in last year’s report)

10261143 5188 5273 1058

1143+5188-5273=1044

Section 3: Disposition of Incoming Request

• Break down of all purported requests from Section 2• 3.c Total should equal Number of Requests Processed in Section 2

• Provide the number of request dispositions for each applicable column• Only one disposition may be recorded per request• Dispositions in 3.b should only be selected if the request cannot be counted in

one of the three columns in 3.a

Section 3: Disposition of Incoming Request

• 3.c is the sum of categories in 3.a and 3.b and must equal the total amount of request processed in FY 2010 (same number as 2.b.4)

• 38 + 73 + 8+ 30 + 472 + 9 + 2+ 116 + 49 + 21 + 12 + 24 =

38 73 8 30 472 9 2 116 49 21 12 24 854

854

Section 3: Disposition of Incoming Request

• Provide descriptions of “other reasons” used for full denials and the total number of

times each reason was relied upon in 3.d• The total must match the number provided in 3.b.9

2

24

Aggregated requestsClassification ReviewFollow up

13 1 2

24

24

Section 3: Disposition of Incoming Request Examples of Errors from Last Year

7+ 2+ 23+ 21+ 2+ 0+ 0+ 0+ 0+ 0+ N/A = 55

7 2 23 21 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 N/A 32

32

Section 4: Exemptions Applied

• For each request, report all exemptions applied• Report each exemption only once per request

Section 4: Exemptions Applied

• List the statutes cited for any (b)(3) exemptions• 4.c must be the same number as 4.a (b)(3)

2

1

3

3

Section 5: Processed Perfected Requests

• This section should include perfected requests categorized into Simple, Complex,

and ExpeditedUnless your components uses more than 3 tracks

• Do not count Privacy Act requests, Consultations, or Non-Perfected requests• Non Perfected requests

• Not Reasonably Described (3.b.5)• Improper Requests (3.b.6)• Some Fee-Related Issues (3.b.4)

• Processing Time is defined as the number of business days from the date of receipt to the date the case was closed• If the request was received and closed on the same day, the Processing Time is “1” or “<1”

Section 5: Processed Perfected Simple Requests

• In 5.b. provide the lowest, highest, median and average of all perfected processed

simple requests• In 5.e. provide the number of days to process all perfected simple requests• The data used to calculate 5.b. should be used to calculate 5.e• Supply raw data of processing times for all “Simple” processed requests in a separate file

1 108 7 8.10

528 7 2 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 541

Section 5: Processed Perfected Simple RequestsExamples of Errors from Last Year

• The raw data (5.a) did not match the numbers reported in this section• should be a list of 541 numbers• highest number should be 108• lowest number should be 1

1 108 50 7

528 7 2 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 541

Section 5: Processed Perfected Simple Requests

• In 5.d. provide the lowest, highest, median and average of all perfected simple requests in which information was Granted in Full or Granted in Part• 5.c. asks for the raw data of this section

1 73 6 15.63

Section 6: Processed Perfected Complex Requestsand

Section 7: Processed Perfected Expedited Requests

Identical to Section 5 (Processed Perfected Simple Requests)

59 22 17 6 9 4 9 3 4 3 3 2 1 142

1 528 30.5 60.95

Section 6: Processed Perfected Complex Requestsand

Section 7: Processed Perfected Expedited Requests

1 528 39 73.86

Section 8: Pending (Open) Requests

• Provide the number of perfected requests pending in each processing track• The sum of the number of pending simple, complex and expedited requests

should equal the total number pending as listed in 2.b.5• Exception: if there are open Non-Perfected requests

• Provide the median and average number of days those requests

75 12 17.37 50 128 140.84 1 15 115

Section 8: Pending (Open) Requests

• Provide the dates of receipt and number of days pending for the ten oldest pending, perfected requests• Days pending is defined as the number of business days from the date of receipt to the end of the Fiscal year (9/30/2010) • If there are cases that are older than the ones reported last FY but were not reported due to an error, please make a note of it

Section 9: Appeals

• To be reported by all components that process administrative appeals• If more than one component adjudicates an administrative appeal, each component should report separately

Section 9: Appeals

• Provide the number of appeals received, processed, and pending in 9.a.1, 9.a.2 and 9.a.3

Section 9: Appeals

• If there are any adjustments in reported numbers, please explain in 9.d

• 9.b.1 and 9.b.2 should be the same number (end-of-year = beginning of year)• If 9.b.1 and 9.b.2 are not the same, please explain in 9.c (e.g., case reopened)• 9.b.2 + 9.b.3 – 9.b.4 must equal 9.b.5

Section 9: Appeals

• 10.a and 10.b are separate charts; an appeal may be counted in both• 10.a Provide the number of appeal adjudications

Section 10: Disposition of All Administrative Appeals

• 10.b.6 Improper Requests (e.g., lacking perjury statement, 3rd party release, etc.)• If administrative appeal results in a denial based on exemptions (Section 11) and also a denial for other reasons (10.b) report appeal on all applicable charts

Section 10: Disposition of All Administrative Appeals

• Include any case closed for other reasons (10.b.11)• 10.d should be the same number as 10.b.11

Section 10: Disposition of All Administrative Appeals

• For each appeal, report all exemptions applied• Report each exemption only once per appeal

Section 11: Exemptions Applied

• Processing Time is defined as the number of business days from the date of receipt to the date the case was closed• If the request was received and closed the same day, the Processing Time is “1”.

• NOTE: “0” is not allowed in these calculations• Provide the median, average, and range in number of days to respond to administrative appeals• Supply raw data of processing times for all “Simple” processed requests in a separate file

Section 12: Processing Time for Administrative Appeals

• Provide the date of receipt of the ten oldest appeals and the number of days pending• Days pending is defined as the number of business days from the date of receipt to the end of the Fiscal year (9/30/2010)

Section 13: Pending (Open) Administrative Appeals

• Processing time for Expedited Requests is defined as the number of CALENDAR DAYS from the date of receipt• Adjudication is defined as any decision made (grant or deny) regarding request

• Do not count moot cases (case processed within 10 calendar days)• Raw data file should include number granted and number denied

Section 14: Requests for Expedited Processing

Section 14: Requests for Expedited ProcessingExamples of Errors from Last Year

13 1687 5 9 10

We are required to adjudicate requests for expedited processing within 10 calendar days.

This component only used the number of requests GRANTED to calculate 14.c

Corrected Number Adjudicated within 10 Days was 1480

• Processing time for Fee Waivers is defined as the number of BUSINESS DAYS from the commencement of adjudication to the date of adjudication• Do not include the additional days that may precede consideration of the fee waiver requests (e.g., processing queue)• Do not count a request for fee waiver that became moot

• Example: No fees charged because it did not meet the threshold

Section 15: Requests for Fee Waivers

• Provide the number of full-time and full-time equivalent FOIA employees• “Full-Time” is defined as performs FOIA duties 100% of the time• 16.a. Should be a whole number• 16.b is to account for any staff that spends a portion of their time processing

FOIA requests (e.g., Person 1 (.25) + person 2 (.5) = .75)

Section 16: Personnel

2 .75 2.75

If you are filling out this form your office has FOIA personnel

Section 16: PersonnelExamples of Errors from Last Year

0

• Provide the processing costs, to include all costs expended at initial request and administrative appeal levels

• Salaries of FOIA Personnel• Overhead Costs• FOIA-related expenses

Section 17: Costs

• Provide Litigation costs• Salaries of Personnel involved in litigating FOIA requests• Litigation overhead Costs• Other litigation-related expenses

Section 17: Costs

• Report the dollar amount of fees collected from FOIA requestors• Include fees received for, search, review, duplication, and any other direct cost permitted by the DHS FOIA Regulations

Section 18: Fees Collected for Processing Requests

• DOJ requires us to calculate the overall median for twelve separate calculations• Processed Simple Requests• Processed Complex Requests• Processed Expedited Requests• Processed Simple Requests (Information Granted)• Processed Complex Requests (Information Granted)• Processed Expedited Requests (Information Granted)• Pending Simple Requests• Pending Complex Requests• Pending Expedited Requests• Processed Appeals• Adjudication of Requests for Expedited Processing• Adjudication of Requests for Fee Waivers

• This data should be sent to us in a separate file (excel is preferred)• A labeled (Processed Simple Requests) list of numbers is fine

Raw Data Files

• Component annual reports are due to CG-611 by October 4, 2010

• Annual Report Template• Raw Data files

• Excel files are preferred• NO PDFs!• If the file is too large to send via e-mail please let us know to look for

it in the mail

Your submission is not complete without the raw data files

Submitting the Component Annual Reports

Questions? Concerns?

For FOIA Annual Report Template help contact: Gaston Brewer 202-475-3525

or Amira Moore 202-475-361