Important Things To Know About FOIA Archiving
FOIA,
which in full stands for Freedom of information Act, generally provides any
individual the statutory right, enforceable in court, for gaining access to
government information in executive branch agency records. It is the legal tool
that both private citizens and journalists have for furthering government
transparency. More and more people these days have become aware of the fact
that they have the right to access government records, including email, social
media, text messages, instant messaging and phone calls that are related to the
conduct of the government.
For most
government agencies, there are two challenges that are experienced when it
comes to FOIA
archiving, including timely response and record retention. The pressure of
responding to FOIA requests is a never-ending challenge to these agencies.
According to a study that was done by the Washington-based Center for Effective
Government, the top fifteen agencies, which process the most requests from FOIA
are still falling short of providing information promptly.
Failure of
most of these agencies to meet FOIA archiving deadlines stems from a number of
reasons, including limited staffing shortfalls, the ever-complex archiving as
well as managing of public records as well as manual processing of requests.
When it comes to data retention as well as oversight of public communications,
most agencies still have issues because
they rely on their legacy systems to capture and manage more complex records,
for instance instant messages and SMS messages.
Despite
the hurdles, there are many agencies that are able to improve their efficiency
of complying with FOIA archiving needs through technology. There are several solutions at their disposal
to help automate FOIA requests and also streamline record retention as well as
archiving capabilities. One of the solutions is the use of web portals. These
portals features invoicing and collection system for FOIA fees as well as
automated capture of FOIA requests via any channel.
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