White House Releases Memo Regarding Government Records Management

Focusing on records management reform, President Obama released a new Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies on November 28^th, 2011. Prompted by Executive order 13589, promoting more efficient spending, the memo discusses modernizing the records management systems to reduce operational costs while increasing efficiency. 

One of the primary concerns in adopting digital document management methods is that if data management practices and policies aren’t updated across the board, we are likely to face a major bottleneck in processing, which could effectively overflow into other resources at agencies disposal.

Agency heads have been tasked with ensuring that all records management activities are completed successfully and within all applicable regulations, as well as submitting a report to the Archivist and Director of OMB. This report will contain information of each agencies current records management processes and plans for improvement while also identifying obstacles and needs of each agency.

Once all reports have been received and evaluated by OMB, OMB will be releasing a Records Management Directive intended to create a government wide framework for records management. This includes promoting policies that enable agencies’ to better address their records management needs and expediting the transition from paper-based records management to a digital solution, when applicable.

We have yet to see what the impact of what this memo will be, but any time an Executive Order mandating a move to technology is made, we know the intent is increased operational efficiency. And from a FOIA perspective, we know it is a good move. Better records management processes help FOIA teams receive their responsive records faster by uploading electronic documents right into their redaction and case tracking software for faster review and processing of requests. 

While we don’t know exactly where this memo will take us, it seems like it is a step in the right direction for Freedom of Information offices. Read the memo now by clicking HERE.

Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) Office Posts CUI Registry

An Executive Agent from the CUI Office worked with each government agency to establish these terms and practices. The result of this work has now been posted as the CUI Registry, which contains categories and sub-categories for CUI.

This innovation will allow for a more efficient workflow among and between government agencies. By using a standard set of designations for information deemed as CUI. This new system will help increase transparency across the board, especially when dealing with interagency FOIA requests.

Advances like this will set a new standard for transparency policies, allowing for faster dissemination of data while ensuring the protection of sensitive data.

Privasoft Earns Silver Competency in the Microsoft Partner Program

Privasoft is proud to announce that it has earned Microsoft® Silver Independent Software Vendor (ISV) competency.  Achieving this rigorous standard is further evidence of Privasoft's capability and commitment to the creation of leading-edge technology, based on the Microsoft platform.

In order to achieve this, Privasoft successfully met Microsoft’s judicious testing requirements and submitted several customer references as evidence of custom off-the-shelf (COTS) deployment in various organizations.

This accomplishment further confirms Privasoft’s technical competency and strategic vision to align with industry leaders and be at the forefront of technology to best serve our customers.

“Our partnership with Microsoft enables us to find innovative technology solutions to solve business problems and keep the acquisition and operational costs low for all customer sizes.”

-          Phaneendra Rao, Director of Marketing and Product Management

With Silver ISV/Software competency, Privasoft gains access to a wider variety of Microsoft tools and support for Microsoft SQL Server, Windows Server, Windows 7 operating system and Microsoft cloud services.  These additional resources will help to simplify and shorten the development cycle for new features, ultimately resulting in more robust and powerful tools for Privasoft clients.

See the press release HERE.

The Faster FOIA Act – Second Time’s a Charm

While the Faster FOIA Act is currently in limbo, having failed to pass in the House earlier this year. The Senate has once again passed the Act, and it is on its way back to the House, where it was previously rejected. Passing unanimously in the Senate, the Faster FOIA Act establishes an advisory panel to examine and address FOIA backlogs in government agencies.

The advisory panel will be analyzing FOIA request handling, systems for charging and accepting fees and fee waiver practices in an attempt to reduce handling times. They will also be seeking other methods of reducing FOIA backlogs and fundamentally streamlining FOIA processes. While the panel will not be able to set changes in place, it will be providing Congress with recommendations, which could be acted upon on a Congressional level.

The Faster FOIA Act ultimately has the potential to affect all requesters, but will have the most impact on frequent requesters, such as journalists and news outlets, advocacy groups, law firms and the like. Currently, less than half of the agencies evaluated by the Information Security Oversight Office have been found to be making steps toward more transparency, as ordered by President Obama.

With more than 69,000 FOIA requests backlogged across agencies and a higher volume of requests coming in each year, change in the FOIA process is clearly needed. Both standardization among agencies and automation systems, such as Privasoft’s AccessPro Suite, can lead to greatly reduced turnaround times which would also lead to rapid reductions in FOIA backlogs.

Privasoft’s Latest Offering: FOIAPro Track & Report

With new transparency initiatives in place, you only need to search for the “#FOIA” hashtag in Twitter to see many of the hurdles that Federal, State and Local government entities have to contend with. Great efforts are being made across the board, but Privasoft’s latest “cloud” based offering will greatly facilitate faster compiling and processing of annual reports, while at the same time allowing for more expansive adoption of digital FOIA management.

Privasoft’s FOIAPro Track & Report is an online case tracking and annual reporting tool that can easily be used by any office. Its flexibility allows it to work around any of your FOIA offices specific conditions or business processes.

The end result?

Save time and money this annual reporting season. FOIAPro can complete your annual report in minutes, not days, freeing your office resources up so they can concentrate on current requests and avoiding backlogs.

FOIAPro Track & Report allows agencies to accurately track the lifecycle and all aspects related to FOIA and Privacy Act requests while tracking all of the information necessary to quickly generate the year-end Annual Report.

About FOIAPro Case Tracker

FOIAPro Case Tracker is ideal for departments that do not have an automated FOIA case management system and receive a lower number (several dozens to a few hundred) of requests per year but spend a lot of time and resources in producing their annual report.

About FOIAPro Reporter

FOIAPro Reporter is ideal for departments that have some type of system (legacy, home-grown, etc.) to process FOIA cases, but waste a lot of time and money in producing their Annual Report due to inconsistent processing, data capturing and lack of resources.

FOIAPro Reporter is especially useful for those departments/components who submit their information to its parent agency for inclusion in the Agency wide report.

Check out FOIA-Pro.com for more information on Privasoft’s FOIAPro Track & Report. Free trials are available so you can see how FOIAPro will benefit your office with no risk.

Supreme Court Makes Major FOIA Exemption Change

Exemption 2 of the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552 (b)(2) (2006 & Supp. III 2009) has been clarified due to Milner v. Department of the Navy, in which Milner requested access to maps detailing safe distances from stored explosives. The Supreme Court has made an opinion stating that “High 2” exemptions will no longer apply in any situations. Exemption 2 is meant to protect information relating to personnel, including salary information, health care, training, retirement data and other issues relating to the personnel of a facility.  The “High 2” exemption is a loose interpretation of Exemption 2 established in 1981 in the Crooker v. Bureau if Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms case. 

In Milner v. Department of the Navy, Justice Elena Kagan said: "Our construction of the statutory language simply makes clear that Low 2 is all of 2 (and that High 2 is not 2 at all . . .)." While this determination was made, the Supreme Court did not order the release of the requested documents. The case was instead sent back to the Ninth Circuit to determine if any other FOIA exemptions could be applied to the information.

The Department of Justice’s release on the issue, found here: http://www.justice.gov/oip/foiapost/2011foiapost15.html, sheds more light on the situation, as well as offering guidance to FOIA offices to ensure that the proper exemptions are used in the proper manner.

How to Keep Your FOIA Obligations in these Tough Economic Times: Privasoft to Host Web Seminar

With the Obama Administration driving openness, transparency and accountability government agencies and departments are challenged to find innovative solutions to meet these objectives in the current economic condition.

Rising expectations, growing caseloads and increasingly complex requests create a significant challenge for freedom of information (FOIA) offices. Effective management and administration are essential if programs are to deliver responses at levels that meet and exceed citizens' expectations while also keeping costs in check.

Attend this free web seminar to learn how government agencies are reducing request turnaround time and ensuring compliance with legislation by:

• Ensuring 100% safety and accuracy of your redactions
• Avoiding unintentional release of sensitive material
• Tracking, managing and processing cases (requests and appeals)
• Monitoring and optimizing performance; ensuring legislative compliance
• Accurately producing annual report in minutes
• Easily creating custom and administrative reports
• Collaborating electronically and promoting citizen engagement


Register for the seminar by going to http://www.privasoft.com/ » to learn how government agencies are reducing request turnaround time and ensuring compliance with legislation.