FREEDOM OF 

INFORMATION ACT

Key Website Is 

Generally Reliable, 

but Action Is Needed 

to Ensure 

Completeness of Its 

Reports

Report to the Committee on 

Oversight and Government Reform

House of Representatives

June 2012

GAO-12-754

United States Government Accountability Office

GAO
United States Government Accountability Office

Highlights of GAO-12-754, a report to the 

Committee on Oversight and Government 

Reform, House of Representatives 

June 2012 

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT

Key Website Is Generally Reliable, but Action Is 

Needed to Ensure Completeness of Its Reports

Why GAO Did This Study

FOIA establishes a legal right of 

access to government information on 

the basis of principles of openness and 

accountability in government. To 

facilitate the public’s ability to obtain 

information on federal agencies’ 

compliance with FOIA and other 

information related to the act, Justice 

launched a website—FOIA.gov—in 

March 2011. Accordingly, GAO was 

requested to determine (1) the origin 

and reliability of the data on FOIA.gov

and (2) the actions being taken to 

improve FOIA.gov and develop

additional capabilities. To accomplish 

these objectives, GAO reviewed 

Justice’s plan for the website and

analyzed the consistency of the data 

on FOIA.gov and the completeness of 

the results provided by the website’s 

feature that allows users to create 

custom reports. GAO also interviewed 

cognizant Justice and other agency 

officials.

What GAO Recommends

GAO recommends that Justice ensure 

that the “Advanced Reporting” feature 

on FOIA.gov produces reports that are 

complete. In written comments on a 

draft of this report, the Director of 

Justice’s Office of Information Policy 

agreed with GAO’s recommendation. 

What GAO Found

The Department of Justice’s (Justice) website called FOIA.gov presents data 

from agencies’ annual Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) reports. Agencies 

submit their annual reports to Justice in print and in electronic form and Justice 

posts the electronic data onto the website. For fiscal year 2010, the data GAO 

reviewed on the website were generally consistent with the data in the agencies’ 

print versions. According to Justice officials, the department has taken steps to 

ensure accuracy and consistency of the data. These steps include providing 

annual training to agency personnel who are responsible for preparation of the 

FOIA annual reports and posting guidance for report completion and submission 

on the Office of Information Policy website. In addition, the department has 

implemented checks to ensure data consistency between the two report 

versions. Specifically, it has developed and provided agencies with a tool to be 

used in creating the electronic version for the website. The tool contains features 

that assist agencies in compiling their data and math checks to help ensure 

consistency. Further, Justice officials have a checklist they use as a guide for 

checking the consistency of the electronic versions of agencies’ annual reports 

against the print versions. However, FOIA.gov’s “Advanced Reporting” feature, 

which provides users with the capability to generate custom reports based on 

user-selected queries, did not always produce complete results. Specifically, 

certain reports showed data for fewer than the 97 agencies that should have 

been included. Justice officials stated that they had taken steps to correct the 

specific instances of incomplete reports that GAO had identified. Nevertheless, 

GAO’s experience in using FOIA.gov raises concerns about whether the website

will produce complete reports in response to all queries.

Justice has made improvements to FOIA.gov since the website’s initial 

deployment in March 2011. For example, the department added a search feature 

to help users locate information on an agency’s website, including documents 

agencies have released in response to previous FOIA requests. Further, in 

March 2012, the department added information in the Spanish language, as well 

as links to agencies’ FOIA web portals. While Justice does not intend to expand 

FOIA.gov’s capabilities to serve as an internal FOIA processing system, three 

other agencies—the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of 

Commerce, and the National Archives and Records Administration—have 

undertaken the development of a multiagency system that is intended to 

complement FOIA.gov and provide such capabilities.

View GAO-12-754. For more information, 

contact Valerie C. Melvin at (202) 512-6304 or 

melvinv@gao.gov. 
Page i GAO-12-754 Freedom of Information Act

Letter 1 

Conclusions 3

Recommendation for Executive Action 3

Agency Comments and Our Evaluation 3

Appendix I Briefing for Staff Members of the Committee on Oversight and 

Government Reform, House of Representatives 5

Appendix II Department of Justice 30

Appendix III Department of Commerce 32

Appendix IV National Archives and Records Administration 33

Appendix V GAO Contact & Staff Acknowledgments 34

Abbreviations

Commerce Department of Commerce

EPA Environmental Protection Agency

FOIA Freedom of Information Act

Justice Department of Justice

NARA National Archives and Records Administration

Contents

This is a work of the U.S. government and is not subject to copyright protection in the 

United States. The published product may be reproduced and distributed in its entirety 

without further permission from GAO. However, because this work may contain 

copyrighted images or other material, permission from the copyright holder may be 

necessary if you wish to reproduce this material separately.
Page 1 GAO-12-754 Freedom of Information Act

United States Government Accountability Office 

Washington, DC 20548

June 28, 2012

The Honorable Darrell Issa

Chairman

The Honorable Elijah Cummings

Ranking Member

Committee on Oversight 

and Government Reform

House of Representatives

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)1 establishes a legal right of 

access to government information on the basis of principles of openness 

and accountability in government. FOIA allows the public to request 

information from federal agencies, which the agencies are required to 

provide, subject to specified exemptions that allow protection for discrete 

categories of information.2 To help ensure accountability, FOIA requires 

that agencies provide an annual report to the Attorney General; these 

reports include information as specified in the act, such as how many 

requests were received and processed in the previous fiscal year, how 

many requests were pending at the end of the fiscal year, and the median 

times that agencies or their components took to process the requests.3

www.FOIA.gov

To 

make the data from agencies’ annual FOIA reports more usable (i.e., 

searchable) and to serve as an educational resource for the public and 

agencies, the Department of Justice (Justice) launched the website, 

, in March 2011.

At your request, we conducted a study of the FOIA.gov website. As 

agreed to with the staff of your committee, our objectives were to 

determine (1) the origin of the data on FOIA.gov and how reliable are the 

data and (2) the actions being taken to improve FOIA.gov and develop 

additional capabilities.

 

1

5 U.S.C. § 552.

2

These exemptions permit restrictions on public disclosure for reasons such as protection 

of personal privacy, national security, and law enforcement. 

3

In an ordered set of values, the median is a value below and above which there is an 

equal number of values; if there is no one middle number, it is the arithmetic mean 

(average) of the two middle values.

 
 

Page 2 GAO-12-754 Freedom of Information Act

On April 30, 2012, we provided your offices with briefing slides that 

outlined the results of our study and we met with your staff to discuss our 

findings, conclusions, and recommendation. The purpose of this report is 

to provide the published briefing slides to you and to officially transmit our 

recommendation to the Department of Justice. The slides, which discuss 

our scope and methodology, are included in appendix I.

We performed our work in support of this performance audit at the 

Department of Justice and at the Department of Commerce (Commerce),

the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the National Archives 

and Records Administration (NARA) in Washington, D.C., from October 

2011 to April 2012, in accordance with generally accepted government 

auditing standards. Those standards require that we plan and perform the 

audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable 

basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We 

believe that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our 

findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives.

In summary, our review highlighted the following:

• The FOIA.gov website presents data that originate in the FOIA annual 

reports that agencies are required to submit to Justice. The website’s 

fiscal year 2010 data were generally consistent with data that were 

contained in agencies’ published FOIA annual reports. According to 

officials in the Office of Information Policy, the department has taken 

steps to ensure the accuracy and consistency of the data. These 

steps include, but are not limited to, providing annual training to 

agency personnel who are responsible for preparation of the FOIA 

annual reports and posting guidance for report completion and 

submission on the Office of Information Policy website. However, the 

“Advanced Reporting” feature on FOIA.gov did not always yield 

reports that were complete. For example, certain reports showed data 

for fewer than the 97 agencies that should have been included. We 

discussed these incomplete reports with the Director of the Office of 

Information Policy and an official from Justice’s Chief Information 

Officer’s staff. According to these officials, the department has 

resolved the incomplete reports we identified. Nonetheless, the 

incomplete results are cause for concern about whether FOIA.gov will 

produce complete reports for all queries.

• Justice has made improvements to FOIA.gov since the website’s 

initial deployment in March 2011. For example, the department added 

a search feature to help users locate information on an agency’s 
 

Page 3 GAO-12-754 Freedom of Information Act

website, including documents agencies have released in response to 

previous FOIA requests. While Justice does not intend to expand 

FOIA.gov’s capabilities to serve as an internal FOIA processing 

system, EPA, Commerce, and NARA have undertaken development 

of a multiagency system that is intended to complement FOIA.gov and 

provide such capabilities.

As intended, the FOIA.gov website is populated with data that originate in 

the FOIA annual reports that federal agencies are required to submit to 

Justice. While these data for fiscal year 2010 are generally consistent 

with those presented in agencies’ published annual reports, the website’s 

feature that provides users with the capability to generate customized 

reports was not reliable because it did not always provide complete 

results.

Justice has made improvements to enhance FOIA.gov, including the 

addition of a governmentwide search feature; however, it does not intend 

for the website to include capabilities that agencies would use to support 

management of their FOIA processes (e.g., processing FOIA requests). 

EPA, Commerce, and NARA are currently engaged in a project to 

develop a multiagency system that is intended to compliment FOIA.gov 

and provide such capabilities.

To ensure the reliability of reports generated from the “Advanced 

Reporting” feature of the Department of Justice’s website, FOIA.gov, we 

recommended that the Director of the Office of Information Policy, in 

conjunction with the department’s Chief Information Officer, make certain 

that the website’s “Advanced Reporting” feature produces complete 

reports in response to all queries.

The Department of Justice provided written comments on a draft of this 

report, signed by the Director of the Office of Information Policy. In its 

comments, the department agreed with our recommendation. The 

Director stated that, while the department’s Office of the Chief Information 

Officer has resolved the issue of some agencies and components of 

agencies not appearing in certain reports generated by the FOIA.gov 

advanced reporting feature, the Office of Information Policy, in 

conjunction with the Office of the Chief Information Officer, will perform 

additional testing to re-confirm that the FOIA.gov advanced reporting 

feature is producing complete reports. The Director also noted that, while 

Conclusions

Recommendation for 

Executive Action

Agency Comments 

and Our Evaluation
 

Page 4 GAO-12-754 Freedom of Information Act

the department does not intend for FOIA.gov to serve as an internal FOIA 

processing system for agencies, the website includes features that can 

assist agencies with their management of FOIA, such as, the ability to 

compare and contrast their own performance over time and with that of 

other agencies, assess trends, analyze processing times, and determine 

whether information responsive to a FOIA request is already publicly 

available. We agree that these capabilities have the potential to assist 

agencies in their management of FOIA. The comments are reproduced in 

appendix II. 

Further, we received written comments from the Department of 

Commerce, signed by the Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Secretary 

for Administration, and from the National Archives and Records 

Administration, signed by the Archivist of the United States. These 

comments are reproduced in appendixes III and IV, respectively. In its

comments, Commerce concurred that FOIA.gov is different from, but 

complimentary to, the multiagency FOIA web portal the department is 

developing with NARA and EPA. The Archivist commented on the 

importance of the accuracy and completeness of the data on FOIA.gov. 

We also requested, but did not receive comments from, the 

Environmental Protection Agency. 

We are sending copies of this report to interested congressional 

committees. We are also sending copies to the Attorney General; the 

Director, Office of Information Policy; and other interested parties. Copies 

of this report will also be available at no charge on GAO’s website at 

http://www.gao.gov. 

If you or your staffs have any questions on matters discussed in this

report, please contact me at (202) 512-6304 or melvinv@gao.gov. 

Contact points for our Offices of Congressional Relations and Public 

Affairs may be found on the last page of this report. GAO staff who made 

major contributions to this report are listed in appendix II.

Valerie C. Melvin

Director

Information Management

and Technology Resources Issues
Appendix I: Briefing for Staff Members of the 

Committee on Oversight and Government 

Reform, House of Representatives

Page 5 GAO-12-754 Freedom of Information Act

Appendix I: Briefing for Staff Members of the 

Committee on Oversight and Government 

Reform, House of Representatives
Appendix I: Briefing for Staff Members of the 

Committee on Oversight and Government 

Reform, House of Representatives

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Appendix I: Briefing for Staff Members of the 

Committee on Oversight and Government 

Reform, House of Representatives

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Appendix I: Briefing for Staff Members of the 

Committee on Oversight and Government 

Reform, House of Representatives

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Appendix I: Briefing for Staff Members of the 

Committee on Oversight and Government 

Reform, House of Representatives

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Appendix I: Briefing for Staff Members of the 

Committee on Oversight and Government 

Reform, House of Representatives

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Appendix I: Briefing for Staff Members of the 

Committee on Oversight and Government 

Reform, House of Representatives

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Appendix I: Briefing for Staff Members of the 

Committee on Oversight and Government 

Reform, House of Representatives

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Appendix I: Briefing for Staff Members of the 

Committee on Oversight and Government 

Reform, House of Representatives

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Appendix I: Briefing for Staff Members of the 

Committee on Oversight and Government 

Reform, House of Representatives

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Appendix I: Briefing for Staff Members of the 

Committee on Oversight and Government 

Reform, House of Representatives

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Appendix I: Briefing for Staff Members of the 

Committee on Oversight and Government 

Reform, House of Representatives

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Appendix I: Briefing for Staff Members of the 

Committee on Oversight and Government 

Reform, House of Representatives

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Appendix I: Briefing for Staff Members of the 

Committee on Oversight and Government 

Reform, House of Representatives

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Appendix I: Briefing for Staff Members of the 

Committee on Oversight and Government 

Reform, House of Representatives

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Appendix I: Briefing for Staff Members of the 

Committee on Oversight and Government 

Reform, House of Representatives

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Appendix I: Briefing for Staff Members of the 

Committee on Oversight and Government 

Reform, House of Representatives

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Appendix I: Briefing for Staff Members of the 

Committee on Oversight and Government 

Reform, House of Representatives

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Appendix I: Briefing for Staff Members of the 

Committee on Oversight and Government 

Reform, House of Representatives

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Appendix I: Briefing for Staff Members of the 

Committee on Oversight and Government 

Reform, House of Representatives

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Appendix I: Briefing for Staff Members of the 

Committee on Oversight and Government 

Reform, House of Representatives

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Appendix I: Briefing for Staff Members of the 

Committee on Oversight and Government 

Reform, House of Representatives

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Appendix I: Briefing for Staff Members of the 

Committee on Oversight and Government 

Reform, House of Representatives

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Appendix I: Briefing for Staff Members of the 

Committee on Oversight and Government 

Reform, House of Representatives

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Appendix I: Briefing for Staff Members of the 

Committee on Oversight and Government 

Reform, House of Representatives

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Appendix II: Department of Justice

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Appendix II: Department of Justice
Appendix II: Department of Justice

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Appendix III: Department of Commerce

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Appendix III: Department of Commerce
Appendix IV: National Archives and Records 

Administration

Page 33 GAO-12-754 Freedom of Information Act

Appendix IV: National Archives and Records 

Administration 
Appendix V: GAO Contact & 

Staff Acknowledgments

Page 34 GAO-12-754 Freedom of Information Act

Valerie C. Melvin, (202) 512-6304 or melvinv@gao.gov

In addition to the contact named above, Mark Bird (Assistant Director), 

Elena Epps, Nancy Glover, Jacqueline Mai, and Christy Tyson made key 

contributions to this report.

Appendix V: GAO Contact & Staff 

Acknowledgments 

GAO Contact

Staff 

Acknowledgments

(310991)
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