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Chief FOIA Officer Report 2012

Department of the Treasury 
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Chief FOIA Officer Report

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Table of Contents

Message from the Chief FOIA Officer 6

DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY: OFFICES AND BUREAUS 7

Section I: Steps Taken to Apply the Presumption of Openness 8

1. a. Did your agency hold an agency FOIA conference or conduct 

training?..............................................................................................................................................................................8

1 b.. Did your FOIA professionals attend any FOIA training, such as provided by the Department of 

Jusstice?........................................................................................................................................................................9

2. Did your agency make any discretionary 

releases?.......................................................................................................................................................................9

3. What exemptions would have covered the information?............................................................................................10

4. Provide a narrative description or some examples of information that your agency released as a matter of 

discretion [?}...............................................................................................................................................................................10

5. Describe any other initiatives undertaken by your agency to ensure that the presumption of openness is being 

applied? ..................................................................................................................................................................................11

Section II: Steps Taken to Ensure that Your Agency has an Effective System for Responding to 

Requests...........................................................................................................................................................................................12

1. Do FOIA professionals in your agency have sufficient IT support?.............................................................................12

2. Do your FOIA professionals work with your agency's Open Government Team?...................................................13

3. Has your agency assessed whether adequate staffing is being devoted to responding to

FOIA administration?

.......................................................................................................................................................................................................14

4. Describe any other steps your agency has undertaken to ensure that your FOIA system operates ........................14

Section III: Steps Taken to Increase Proactive disclosure

1. Provide examples of material to your website since last year? ...................................................................................15

2. Beyond posting new material, is your agency making posted information more useful?.................................. .......16

3. If so, provide examples of such improvements................... .....................................................................................17

4. Describe any other steps taken to increase proactive disclosures............................................................................17

Section IV: Steps Take to Greater Utilize technology.............................................................................................................18

1. Can FOIA requests be made 

electronically?............................................................................................................................ ............................................18
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2. If your agency is decentralized, can FOIA requests be made electronically to all components? ............................18

 Online tracking of FOIA requests ........................................................................................................................19

3. Can a requester track status of requests electronically? .......................................................................................19

4. If so, describe the information that is provided to the requester through the tracking system?...........................19

5. In particular, does your agency tracking system provide the requester with an estimated date of 

completion?..................................................................................................................................................................19

6. If your agency does not provide online tracking of requests, is your agency taking steps to establish this 

capacity?......................................................................................................................................................................................20

Use of technology to facilitate processing of FOIA requests:......................................................................................20

7. Beyond using technology to redact documents, is your agency taking steps to utilize more advanced technology 

to facilitate overall FOIA efficiency, such as improving record search capabilities, utilizing document sharing 

platforms for consultations and referrals, or employing software that can sort and duplicate documents? .............20

8. If, so describe the technological improvements? ...................................................................................................20

Section V: Steps Taken to Reduce Backlogs and Improve Timeliness in Responding to Requests

1. Section VII.A of your agency’s Annual FOIA Report, entitled “FOIA Requests – Response Time for All Processed 

Requests,” includes figures that show your agency's average response times for processed requests. For agencies 

utilizing a multi-track system to process requests, there is a category for “simple” requests, which are those 

requests that are placed in the agency’s fastest (non-expedited) track, based on the low volume and/or simplicity 

of the records requested. If your agency does not utilize a separate track for processing simple requests, answer 

the question below using the figure provided in your report for your non-expedited requests. 

a. Does your agency utilize a separate track for simple requests......................................................................................21

b. If so, for your agency overall, for fiscal year 2012, was the average number of days< 20 

days?............................................................................................................................................................................21

c. If your agency does not track simple requests separately, was the average number of days to process nonexpedited requests fewer than 20 working days?

.......................................................................................................................................................................................................21

2. Section XII D (2) and XII E (2) Comparison of Numbers of Requests/Appeals from Previous and Current Annual 

Report- Backlogged Requests/Appeals.......................................................................................................................21

a. If a backlog at close of FY 12, did it decrease compared to FY11? .........................................................................22

b. If a backlog of appeals in FY12, did it decrease compared to FY11?.......................................................................22

c. Did your agency close the 10 oldest requests pending as of end of FY11?.............................................................23

d. Did your agency close the 10 oldest administrative appeals pending as of end of FY11? ......................................23

3. If you answered no to any question in item 2 answer the following:. ...................................................................23

Request backlog...........................................................................................................................................................23

a. Was the lack of a reduction in the request backlog a result of increase in incoming 

requests?....................................................................................................................................................................23
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b. Was the lack of a reduction caused by a loss of staff?

.....................................................................................................................................................................................................23

c. Was the lack of a reduction in the backlog caused by an increase in the complexity of 

requests?....................................................................................................................................................................23

d. What other causes if any, contributed to the lack of a decrease in the request 

backlog?........................................................................................................................................................................23

Administrative Appeal 

backlog..........................................................................................................................................................................................24

a. Was the lack of a reduction in the backlog of appeals a result of an increase in incoming 

appeals?.......................................................................................................................................................................24

b. Was the lack of reduction in the appeal backlog caused by loss of 

staff?...................................................................................................................................................................................24

c. Was the lack of a reduction in the appeal backlog caused by an increase in 

complexity?..................................................................................................................................................................24

d. What other causes, if any, contributed to the lack of a decrease in appeal 

backlog?.......................................................................................................................................................................24

4. OIP issued guidance encouraging agencies to make interim releases on requests that involve voluminous 

amounts of material or searches in multiple locations. Provide an estimate of the number of cases in the backlog 

where a substantive interim response was provided during the fiscal year even though the request was not 

closed............................................................................................................................................................................................24

Use of Law Enforcement 

Exclusions........................................................................................................................................................................................24

Spotlight on Success.......................................................................................................................................................................25
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Message from the Chief FOIA Officer

The Department’s activities in support of the economic recovery efforts have increased the 

proactive disclosure of information of wide interest, including, for example, the calendars of key

officials and information on meetings related to the financial reform efforts. Leveraging 

technologies across bureaus and exploring efficiencies in cloud solutions are two ways in which 

Treasury seeks to take FOIA technology to a new level. In 2012, we implemented our shared 

document technology called goFOIA, exploring and advising other federal agencies’ efforts for a 

central federal FOIA tracking system as well as offering our cloud solution as a federal shared 

service solution for other agencies to utilize in support of the federal CIO’s federal cloud first 

policy. Meanwhile, our agency backlog has decreased by 86% since 2006.

 

I look forward to continuing to work with the Treasury bureaus and offices to improve processes, 

to enhance the citizen FOIA experience, and to further advance the principles of open and 

transparent government in the Treasury Department. 

Nani A. Coloretti

Chief FOIA Officer

Assistant Secretary for Management

0

500

1,000

1,500

2,000

2,500

1

2,022

1,292

718

585

419 333

282

FOIA Backlog Treasury

Department-wide

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

 a historical view
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DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY OFFICES AND BUREAUS

The Departmental Offices (DO)

Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB)

Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC)

Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP)

Financial Management Service (FMS)1

* 

Internal Revenue Service (IRS)

United States Mint (MINT)

Bureau of the Public Debt (BPD)* 

Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA)

Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN)

 

1 Asterisks note bureaus merged to form the Bureau of the Fiscal Service
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Section I: Steps Taken to Apply the Presumption of Openness

The Department has focused this past year on providing the most relevant information to the 

public on activities supporting the nation’s economy, through practices including proactive 

disclosure of information on FinancialStability.gov, Recovery.gov, Making Home Affordable.gov, 

and Treasury.gov for Wall Street reform activities.

1. a. Did your agency hold an agency FOIA conference, or otherwise conduct training during this 

reporting period? 

In FY12, the Department conducted a number of training sessions on the new FOIA 

guidelines as well as transparency and open government principles. During the 

Department’s activities in Records and Information Management Month (RIMM), which 

occurs every April, the Office of Privacy, Transparency, and Records (OPTR) hosted five

training sessions and a panel discussion highlighting international privacy issues, training 

on OPEN.gov and Data.gov and training on the goFOIA document management 

collaboration tool.

Treasury employees were encouraged to register for two online training tools that 

included information on the President’s Memorandum and the Attorney General’s 

Guidelines, and FOIA, privacy, and records principles and practices, and how these 

principles interrelate and support transparency and open government. These courses are 

available to all Treasury employees on Treasury’s Online Learning Management System

(TLMS).

o The IRS Disclosure Office conducted several virtual training sessions for Disclosure 

employees entitled "Disclosure Technical Updates" covering a variety of FOIA topics. 

In addition, 20 employees attended Phase I and Phase II Disclosure Specialist Training 

to complete their basic FOIA training. 

o The IRS continued its agency-wide FOIA and OPEN awareness campaign by 

developing, publishing and marketing a web-based video presentation emphasizing 

each employee's FOIA responsibilities, including providing records directly to 

taxpayers when asked. 

o Employee FOIA responsibilities were incorporated into the Compliance Functions 

(Examination & Collection) New Hire administrative orientation. This training is 

conducted for each class of new hires in every business unit.

o FOIA-related messages were incorporated into functionally specific articles, web 

pages, and other outreach efforts to enhance awareness among specific groups of IRS 

employees. 
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o DO Disclosure Services, within the Office of Privacy, Transparency and Records, met 

with a delegation from Nigeria, which passed a recent law similar to the Freedom of 

Information Act, to discuss best practices and lessons learned.

DO Disclosure Services met with GSA’s FOIA team to discuss FOIA administrative 

processing and electronic technology advancements.

TIGTA's Office of Audit and Office of Chief Counsel provided a disclosure presentation to 

the IRS relating to redactions of Audit Reports for public release (proactive disclosures). 

TIGTA’s Chief Counsel gave presentations on Federal Confidentiality Laws to foreign 

delegations from Cambodia and Croatia.

b. Did your FOIA professionals attend any FOIA training, such as that provided by the Department 

of Justice?

Departmental Office staff attended the Department of Justice training on FOIA and 

technology working group roundtables for information sharing and best practices.

IRS attended the following American Society of Access Professionals (ASAP) training 

sessions:

o 2 employees attended the Annual National Training Conference in March 2012 

o 5 employees attended the Basic FOIA and Privacy Act Training in August of 2012 

o 2 employees attended the FOIA and Privacy Act Workshop in September of 2012 

IRS attended the following Department of Justice training: 

o 1 employee attended the DOJ Annual FOIA Report and Annual Chief FOIA Officer 

Report training offered by the Department of Justice in October 2012

o 2 employees attended a DOJ lecture series event entitled "FOIA Fundamentals" in 

June 2012. 

o 2 employees attended DOJ Freedom of Information Act for Attorneys and Access 

Professionals in December 2012. 

In addition, the Treasury Learning Management System offered online training for 

employees.

2. Did your agency make any discretionary releases of otherwise exempt information?
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Yes. Treasury regularly makes discretionary releases of internal, deliberative information 

that would otherwise be exempt from release under FOIA exemption 5. In some cases, 

Treasury released information exempt from release under exemption 7.

For example, FinCEN provided FinCEN case numbers of investigations to aide requesters 

searching for information.

Similarly, TIGTA waived exemption 5 for notes contained in investigations which were 

deemed to have no foreseeable harm if released to the subject.

3. What exemptions would have covered the information that was released as a matter of 

discretion?

FinCEN waived exemption 7 (E) for its case numbers.

TIGTA waived exemption 5 for its investigatory notes.

IRS released information waiving exemptions 2, 5 and 7. 

4 Provide a narrative description or some examples of the types of information your agency has 

released as a matter of discretion.

o FinCEN provided discretionary release of FinCEN investigation case numbers in order to 

assist requesters seeking information.

o IRS performs a foreseeable harm analysis on all pre-decisional documents prior to 

applying exemption 5. Although draft documents can be withheld under exemption 5, if a 

review reflects no differences between the draft and final, then IRS will release the draft. 

5. Describe any other initiatives undertaken by your agency to ensure that the presumption of 

openness is being applied.

The Department of the Treasury strongly supports increased transparency in government 

and has made great strides in advancing transparency and open government principles. 

Examples include the proactive publication of senior officials’ calendars, and activities 

related to the establishment of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB.)

2

 

2

 Treasury was charged with assisting the establishment of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau by 

the Dodd- Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. [P.L. 111-203, July 21, 2010]
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In particular, the Secretary has committed to implementing the historic Dodd-Frank Wall 

Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in an open and transparent manner. 

Treasury proactively discloses meetings with private sector individuals or entities and 

nongovernmental organizations, with the exception of meetings with members of the 

media that are set up for the purpose of discussing policy implementation of the DoddFrank Act. This disclosure policy applies to in-person meetings participated in by Treasury 

Departmental Offices employees who are at the Deputy Assistant Secretary or higher 

rank, including Counselors to the Secretary and Special Advisors to the Secretary. Meeting 

disclosures are posted to the Department’s FOIA library and include information such as: 

the date of the meeting, names of all covered Treasury participants, names and affiliations 

of all non-Treasury participants, and a list of the primary topics of conversation related to 

Dodd-Frank implementation. 

In the interest of furthering these efforts, the Department is working on amending its

FOIA regulations to include provisions of the OPEN Government Act and policy memos; 

incorporating proactive systemic process changes by bifurcating business submitter

applications before a FOIA request arrives; and ensuring all new employees working on 

FOIA matters take online training to fully understand their vital roles and responsibilities 

for FOIA processing.

IRS FOIA personnel consistently review redaction proposals with functional offices to 

ensure that any reasonable expectation of harm is clearly articulated and that records are 

released to their fullest extent. 

A FOIA-related message was incorporated into an IRS Business Unit's Fraud Digest that 

included information on direct release of case-related records when asked by taxpayers or 

their authorized representatives.

SECTION II: Steps taken to ensure that Your Agency has an Effective System 

for Responding to Requests

As the Attorney General emphasized in his FOIA Guidelines, "[a]application of the proper 

disclosure standard is only one part of ensuring transparency. Open government requires not just 

a presumption of disclosure, but also an effective system for responding to FOIA requests." 

This section should include a discussion of how your agency has addressed the key roles played by 

the broad spectrum of agency personnel who work with FOIA professionals in responding to 

requests, including, in particular, steps taken to ensure that FOIA professionals have sufficient IT 

support. 
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Describe here the steps your agency has taken to ensure that its system for responding to 

requests is effective and efficient. To do so, answer the questions below and then include any 

additional information that you would like to describe how your agency ensures that your FOIA 

system is efficient and effective.

1. Do FOIA professionals within your agency have sufficient IT support?

Information Technology (IT) support for electronic searches to assist with gathering and 

collecting information is provided in DO through our CIO with additional contract support 

assistance. The Treasury Web team also assists with providing information access through 

the Treasury Web site, organizing the site, and making it user-friendly. All Treasury 

components have sufficient IT support, not only with downloading to the Web, but also 

with assistance to conduct electronic searches.

The tracking and assignment solution is just the first step in this major redesign effort. 

The Enterprise Content Management (ECM) initiative is being leveraged to develop and 

implement an electronic collaborative processing workflow based on streamlined process

re-engineering. These workflow findings integrate with the tracking system to facilitate 

timelier processing and reporting. Additional monitoring of the intake process of online 

submissions demonstrates added benefits of reduced paper, decreased use of U.S. Mail, 

and streamlined FOIA intake. Leveraging this tool across components will also provide 

larger scale cost savings.

The second phase for DO is the goFOIA solution. goFOIA functions as a document 

management solution that is based on a collaborative shared platform to review records. 

Additional features include work flows indicators for the document review process in 

order to ascertain the progress of a request. The collaborative environment allows 

multiple offices working on the same request and functions to communicate the 

progression of each office’s progress, and allows multi-party view of the proposed 

redactions.

IRS FOIA professionals have sufficient IT support to accomplish their mission. During 

2012, the IRS fully utilized the Automated Freedom of Information Act (AFOIA) 

management information system for an entire annual reporting cycle covering all offices 

within their organization. This system is used for all aspects of FOIA work, which includes 

monitoring receipts, inventory delivery, applying redactions, maintaining responsive 

documents, and provides automated report and statistical generation. The FOIA program 

continues to receive IT funding and resource support for AFOIA improvements which is 

directly used to better serve the public. 
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In addition, IRS IT organization is moving toward SharePoint version 2010, and we 

anticipate that this will relieve reliability issues, and accommodate FOIA program’s highlevel usage within a shared platform.

2. Do your IT professionals work with your agency OPEN Government Team?

Interaction with the Chief FOIA Officer at Treasury takes place through weekly and 

monthly reporting. Bureau head meetings are held regularly, where FOIA and other topics 

are addressed. The Deputy Assistant Secretary for Privacy, Transparency, and Records 

presides over the OPEN Government team and also coordinates the FOIA operations at 

Treasury for the Chief FOIA Officer. This facilitates embedding transparency and openness 

principles into the disclosure process. Other communication are usually distributed 

through the FOIA Council, where goals and strategies can be shared down the chain of 

command to the points of contact actually processing FOIA, as well as with various council 

members.

The IRS’s HQ Disclosure Office is tasked with the policy and regulatory implementation of 

FOIA, PA and IRC 6103 aspects of both protecting and releasing government information. 

This function works with the Agency Wide Shared Services (AWSS) Records and 

Information Management function to provide an infrastructure for Open Government.

3. Has your agency assessed whether adequate staffing is being devoted to FOIA 

administration? 

Department Offices (DO), includes Treasury’s policy offices. Many of these offices have 

employees with FOIA as an assigned duty. Some policy offices regularly receive FOIA 

requests while others receive a few per year. DO utilizes FOIA contract support to 

supplement FOIA staffing for offices when the need arises such as voluminous projects of 

review and redaction or to conduct a surge to reduce an office backlog.

The IRS Disclosure staff consisted of approximately 155 employees at the end of Fiscal 

Year 2012. This staffing level balances optimal resources while affording adequate 

staffing for current case inventories and receipts. IRS assesses staffing levels at regular 

intervals through data extracted from the AFOIA inventory system, permitting managerial 

determination of optimal labor resources. This provides for the proper management of

the IRS FOIA backlog inventory, while allowing for other outreach and review efforts 

within IRS as well as with other agencies using Federal Tax Information data.

Two Treasury bureaus—FMS and BPD--have merged to create the Bureau of the Fiscal 

Service. FOIA staffing was assessed in consideration of the merger.
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Other bureaus do not have a significant inventory of FOIA requests in a given year to 

warrant additional staffing.

4. Describe any other steps your agency has undertaken to ensure that your FOIA system 

operates efficiently and effectively, such as conducting self-assessments to find greater 

efficiencies, improving search processes, streamlining consultations, eliminating 

redundancy, etc. 

The goFOIA document management collaboration tool was implemented among 

participating Treasury bureaus (those using the cloud tracking system), and allows shared 

reviews and redactions in a portal environment, behind the agency firewall. DO has 

implemented its goFOIA document management system. Training on the collaboration 

tool began at the end of FY 2011. Work with the IT staff of the bureaus participating on 

the system began early in FY 2011 to establish certain integration and connectivity 

capability referred to as trusts. The FOIA staff is currently urged to upload the documents 

to review the FOIA process on the collaboration site, goFOIA.

Acknowledging requests electronically with an electronic signature is an additional 

efficiency instituted in FY2012 in Departmental Offices.

 

Treasury participated in the development of the FOIA online module to gain benefits from 

a government-wide FOIA tracker in efficiency and cost savings.

The Automated Freedom of Information Act (AFOIA) information management system has 

successfully been operational for all IRS Disclosure Offices during the entire fiscal year. 

AFOIA replaced the previous IRS system and allows centralized electronic case inventory 

control from start to finish. This system permits implementation of a centralized intake 

center, a national inventory delivery approach, maintenance of records and archiving, and 

report generation. IRS continues to build on its extensive electronic library of FOIA 

pattern response letters and specific paragraphs used for unique FOIA requests. These 

response letters are embedded within AFOIA and are easily updated when statutory or 

procedural changes occur. IRS actively manages a national inventory balancing program 

to optimize caseloads to available staff and resources. IRS continued to receive favorable 

reports from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) in its 

statutorily-mandated annual review of the IRS FOIA program. The Lean Six Sigma (LSS) 

team made significant improvements to the Disclosure Scanning Operation (DSO), which is 

the centralized intake site. The team also reviewed FOIA processes in its Disclosure 

Offices and is currently implementing best practices to achieve consistency among offices. 

These efforts are expected to produce backlog reductions. IRS’s Business Unit (BU) 
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reports are used to notify the different functions of pending FOIA requests, permitting 

immediate high level management intervention on gathering responsive records. 

Section III: Steps Taken to Increase Proactive Disclosure

Both the President and Attorney General focused on the need for agencies to work proactively to 

post information online without waiting for individual requests to be received. 

Describe here the steps your agency has taken both to increase the amount of material that is 

available on your agency website, and the usability of such information, including providing 

examples of proactive disclosures that have been made during this past reporting period (i.e., 

from March 2011 to March 2012). In doing so, answer the questions listed below and describe 

any additional steps taken by your agency to make and improve proactive disclosures of 

information. 

1. Provide examples of material that your agency posted to your website since last year. 

DO began a digitization project to provide access to the Treasury library online during 

2012. Once uploaded to our cloud solution, the volume of material quickly exceeded our 

storage capacity on the cloud. Alternative technology solutions were explored and an 

integrated library service was procured. See Item 2 below for more information.

TIGTA posted new audit reports, press releases and a semi-annual report.

IRS has several new media tools that it uses to communicate with the public. 

• YouTube ― Short, informative videos on various tax-related topics in English, 

American Sign Language (ASL), and a variety of foreign languages 

• Twitter ― Various tax-related announcements, news for tax professionals and hiring 

initiatives tweeted daily on five IRS Twitter accounts 

• iTunes ― Audio files for use in podcasts

• IRS2Go ― A smartphone application allows taxpayers to interact with the IRS using 

their mobile devices 

• IRS Facebook ― While the IRS does not engage the public on this site, it uses this 

media to post urgent information 

• IRS Return Preparer Office Facebook ― IRS engages with the return preparer audience 

to share relevant information 

• LinkedIn ― Current LinkedIn sites include IRS, IRS Return Preparer and IRS 

Recruitment 

• Tumbler ― A micro blog site where strategically focused pieces of IRS information are 

shared 
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The IRS YouTube channel had over 1.8 million views in 2012, an increase of 66% over last 

year. Twitter followers of the three IRS accounts grew to over 45,000. The IRS2go mobile 

app has nearly 500,000 downloads to Smartphones since the launch of Version 2 in 

February 2012. The app allows taxpayers to view IRS YouTube videos on English, American 

Sign Language, and Multilingual Channels. Taxpayers can also get the latest news from 

IRS, put in a request for their tax records, check their refund status, follow IRS on Twitter,

and get tax tips. 

In the past year, the IRS Corporate Facebook page had 6000 "Likes" during the peak tax 

filing season. A Tumbler micro blog was launched and will become active during the 2013 

tax filing season. Over 800,000 widgets were viewed on topics such as the American 

Opportunity Credit, Getting Transcripts, EITC and VITA. 

IRS has fully implemented Exempt Organizations Select Check, an on-line search tool for 

researching exempt organizations, their federal tax status and filings. This consolidates 

three former search sites, providing expanded search capability and a more efficient way 

to search for organizations. 

2. Beyond posting new material, is your agency taking steps to make the information more 

useful to the public, especially to the community of individuals who regularly access 

your agency’s website, such as soliciting feedback on the content and presentation of 

the posted material, improving search capabilities, providing explanatory material, etc.?

DO is procuring an integrated library system that will allow keyword searches of library 

information. Digitizing records is the key to the success of this tool. Digitization projects 

to enable search capabilities are ongoing. There are plans to connect the FOIA virtual 

library to this tool soon. An integrated library system provides advantages of robust 

search capability on a hosted solution at low cost. The search capability will give the 

public the ability to refine the search based on the types and categories of hits.

TiGTA is making its audit reports searchable by more than just chronology.

3. If so, provide example of such improvements.

In late August, 2012, IRS completed its portal migration and launched the new 

IRS.gov. The new platform:

o Provides a more intuitive and comprehensive intent-based navigation structure;

o Facilitates better positioning and association of content;

o Improves search functionality through new tools and management techniques 

(e.g. Google); and

o Supports independent development of tools/content areas.
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Content improvement will be an ongoing activity. To date, the IRS has improved content 

for notice, payment, installment agreement, offer-in-compromise, and 1099-K reporting. 

Improvements to installment agreement and offer-in-compromise content resulted in 

greater performance, as measured by page visits, rank and search accuracy. To promote 

usage and understanding, the IRS also redesigned content associated with several online 

tools. Finally, the IRS identified 17 areas for improvement through 2013, including 

information about forms, publications, credits and refunds, as well as information 

targeted to tax professionals.

IRS also has a Service-wide Social Media Governance Council that ensures social media is 

effectively managed throughout the Service. As technology evolves and younger 

taxpayers get their information in new ways, the IRS will keep innovating to make it easy 

for taxpayers to access helpful information.

4. Describe any other steps taken to increase proactive disclosures at your agency. 

The IRS updated its smart phone app, IRS2Go. The update included a new, sleeker home 

screen and the addition of three new features to allow taxpayers to request their 

transcripts, get the latest news and watch IRS videos. The mobile app is available for both 

iOS and Android devices and has been downloaded by over 400,000 users. Prior IRS2Go 

features allow taxpayers to check refund status, follow IRS on Twitter, get contact 

information, and subscribe to filing season updates.

DO has procured the services of an integrated library system to provide a vehicle for a 

virtual library in a cloud at low cost with robust search capabilities.

Section IV: Steps Take to Greater Utilize Technology

A key component of the President's FOIA Memorandum was the direction to "use modern 

technology to inform citizens about what is known and done by their Government." In addition to 

using the internet to make proactive disclosures, agencies should also be exploring ways to utilize 

technology in responding to requests. In 2010 and 2011, agencies reported widespread use of 

technology in handling FOIA requests. For 2012, the questions have been further refined and now 

also address different, more innovative aspects of technology use. 

Electronic receipt of FOIA requests:

1. Can FOIA requests be made electronically to your agency?
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Yes, The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency was the first to pioneer online FOIA 

submissions at Treasury. From the web page, requesters have the ability to submit FOIA 

requests and check the status of a request and receive online help through FAQ’s 

designed to make the requester system self-reliant. 

DO has created a FOIA Citizen Web portal similar to that of OCC, except that it is a cloud 

hosted solution. The advantage of the hosted solution, from an Enterprise Content 

Management (ECM) standpoint, is to leverage the host through licensing, so that 

components may opt into the host solution. The Department is implementing its goFOIA

solution which will absorb the document management of FOIA processing and reporting 

functions including TTB, BPD, BEP, MINT, the Fiscal Service, and FinCEN. Requests to 

these entities can currently only be received by mail, fax, or as a scanned document with 

signature via email. Because 90% of IRS FOIA requests contain confidential tax 

information, the IRS is not currently using a government web portal; however, long-term 

plans call for looking at an IRS FOIA web submission process.

The features of the Citizen Web portal would allow those bureaus participating on the 

cloud data base to have the submission request populated to the database within their 

designated inventory.

2. If your agency is decentralized, can FOIA requests be made electronically to all components of 

your agency?

Yes, DO has a cloud solution from a FOIA specific cloud-Citizen Web portal. Citizens’

requests may be assigned to the respective bureau for disposition.

This task was shifted to FOIA online, a government owned cloud solution for online 

submission capability in December 2012. Bureau-specific tracking solutions include:

i. DO- cloud solution 

ii. TTB- cloud solution 

iii. BPD- cloud solution

iv. FMS- began cloud solution in May 2011

v. MINT- cloud solution

vi. IRS- AFOIA (Automated Freedom of Information Act): currently in implementation

vii. OCC-FOIA specific tracking software

viii. BEP- cloud solution

ix. TIGTA: FOIA specific tracking software

x. FinCEN- cloud solution

Online tracking of FOIA requests:

3. Can a FOIA requester track the status of his/her request electronically?
19

Yes, Do has a cloud solution on the Citizen Web portal, which affords the opportunity for 

the requester to register, create a PIN, and electronically enter the data base to check the 

status of requests using a PIN and case number access restriction. Beginning in December

2012, the FOIA online tool will have similar capabilities for requesters to seek the status of 

a request. 

4. If so, describe the information that is provided to the requester through the tracking system?

The Citizen Web portal provided indications to the requester on status such as 

imperfect, active, on hold, and closed. The FOIA Online tool has similar indicators of 

status such as evaluation, in process, hold, and closed.

Use of technology to facilitate processing of requests:

5. In particular, does your agency tracking system provide the requester with an estimated date of 

completion?

The Citizen Web portal does allow for a projected due date for the requester. If that date 

is lapsed, the system needs to have another date entered if the requester seeks an

estimated date of completion.

FOIA Online has a similar capability of provided the initial due date and entry capability for 

additional estimated dates.

6. If your agency does not provide online capacity, is your agency taking steps to establish this 

capacity?

See above.

Use of Technology to facilitate processing of requests

7. Beyond using technology to redact documents, is your agency taking steps to utilize more 

advanced technology to facilitate overall FOIA efficiency, such as improving record search 

capabilities, utilizing document sharing platforms for consultations and referrals, or employing 

software that can sort and de-duplicate documents?

The Integrated Library System (ILS) is a cloud tool which will give the public access to both 

FOIA related documents and Treasury Library’s digitized collections in one system. 

Additionally, the new ILS will have an enhanced FOIA reading room design which will 

include a metasearch capability. This updated search capability will search within content 
20

and will allow for links and documents to appear in search results. The tool has been 

used by universities and libraries which handle large amounts of data.

Internally, the new ILS will give Treasury the ability to monitor metrics and track and apply 

records retention schedules. Treasury is moving forward to implement this feature for the 

FOIA online participating bureaus.

Treasury also continues to leverage e-discovery tools to conduct electronic searches for 

information. The IRS has provided an enterprise license procurement for a search 

collection tool that Treasury used in 2012.

8. If so, describe the technological improvements being made.

Treasury has implemented the goFOIA collaboration platform to enhance multi-office 

review of requests and sharing of administrative process work flows.

GoFOIA will also provide robust analytics and reporting capabilities for weekly and 

monthly reporting within Treasury.

Records Management features on the goFOIA system will enhance the NARA retention 

schedule and provide behind the scene tagging of records that will be seamless to the 

user. 

The ILS mentioned in item 7 above provides the robust search capability the public wants 

and the analytics the government needs to provide customer service oriented 

information.

Section V: Steps Taken to Improve Timeliness in Responding to Requests 

and Reduce Backlogs

The President and the Attorney General have emphasized the importance of improving timeliness 

in responding to requests. This section addresses both time limits and backlog reduction. Backlog 

reduction is measured both in terms of numbers of backlogged requests or appeals and by looking 

at whether agencies closed their ten oldest requests and appeals. For the figures required in this 

Section, please use those contained in the specified sections of your agency’s 2011 Annual FOIA 

Report.

1. Section VII.A of your agency’s Annual FOIA Report, entitled “FOIA Requests – Response 

Time for All Processed Requests,” includes figures that show your agency's average response 

times for processed requests. For agencies utilizing a multi-track system to process requests, 

there is a category for “simple” requests, which are those requests that are placed in the agency’s 
21

fastest (non-expedited) track, based on the low volume and/or simplicity of the records 

requested. If your agency does not utilize a separate track for processing simple requests, answer 

the question below using the figure provided in your report for your non-expedited requests. 

a. Does your agency utilize a separate track for simple requests? 

Treasury does use a multi-track format which includes a separate simple track.

IRS, on the other hand, does not.

b. If so, for your agency overall, for Fiscal Year 2012, was the average number of days to 

process simple requests twenty working days or fewer? 

The average number of days to process simple requests agency overall was less than 20 

days (17.26). 

c. If your agency does not track simple requests separately, was the average number of days 

to process non-expedited requests twenty working days or fewer? 

 

The IRS average number of days was 21.87. 

 

2. Sections XII.D.(2) and XII.E.(2) of your agency’s Annual FOIA Report, entitled “Comparison 

of Numbers of Requests/Appeals from Previous and Current Annual Report – Backlogged 

Requests/Appeals,” show the numbers of any backlog of pending requests or pending appeals 

from Fiscal Year 2011 as compared to Fiscal Year 2010. You should refer to those numbers when 

completing this section of your Chief FOIA Officer Report. In addition, Section VII.E, entitled 

“Pending Requests – Ten Oldest Pending Requests,” and Section VI.C. (5), entitled “Ten Oldest 

Pending Administrative Appeals,” from both Fiscal Years 2011 and Fiscal Year 2012 should be used 

for this section.

a. If your agency had a backlog of requests at the close of Fiscal Year 2012, did that backlog 

decrease as compared with Fiscal Year 2011? 
22

Yes, Treasury’s backlog decreased from 333 to 282, a 15% decrease overall.

b. If your agency had a backlog of administrative appeals in Fiscal Year 2012, did that backlog 

decrease as compared to Fiscal Year 2011? 

Yes, Treasury’s overall appeals backlog dropped by 37% from 51 to 32. 

c. In Fiscal Year 2012, did your agency close the ten oldest requests that were pending as of 

the end of Fiscal Year 2011? 

Treasury closed 20% of the agency’s ten oldest requests.

 

d. In Fiscal Year 2012, did your agency close the ten oldest administrative appeals that were 

pending as of the end of Fiscal Year 2011? 

Treasury closed 90% of the oldest appeals in FY2012

3. If you answered “no” to any of the above questions, describe why that has occurred. In doing 

so, answer the following questions then include any additional explanation: 

0

500

1,000

1,500

2,000

2,500

1

2,022

1,292

718

585

419 333

282

FOIA Backlog Department -wide

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

 a historical view
23

a. Was the lack of a reduction in the request backlog a result of an increase in the number of 

incoming requests?

N/A

b. Was the lack of a reduction in the request backlog caused by a loss of staff?

N/A.

c. Was the lack of a reduction in the request backlog caused by an increase in the 

complexity of the requests received?

N/A

d. What other causes, if any, contributed to the lack of a decrease in the request backlog?

Ongoing FOIA litigation absorbs staff resources and may divert them from ten oldest 

cases. 

N/A

Administrative Appeal Backlog: N/A

a. Was the lack of a reduction in the backlog of administrative appeals a result of an increase 

in the number of incoming appeals? 

N/A

b. Was the lack of a reduction in the appeal backlog caused by a loss of staff?

N/A

c. Was the lack of a reduction in the appeal backlog caused by an increase in the complexity 

of the appeals received?

N/A

d. What other causes, if any, contributed to the lack of a decrease in the appeal backlog?

N/A

4. If your agency had a backlog, please provide a number of the backlog cases which had a 

substantive, interim response during the fiscal year even though the request was not closed.
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At the end of Fiscal Year 2012, the IRS had FOIA backlog cases. During the past year it

provided 419 interim responses to requesters to release responsive records as they 

became available.

DO provided 4 interim responses in separate requests.

Use of FOIA’s Law Enforcement “Exclusions”

In order to increase transparency regarding the use of the FOIA’s statutory law enforcement 

exclusions, which authorize agencies under certain exceptional circumstances to “treat the 

records as not subject to the requirements of [the FOIA],” 5 U.S.C. § 552(c) (1), (2), (3), please 

answer the following questions:

1. Did your agency invoke a statutory exclusion during Fiscal Year 2012?

Treasury did not invoke the exclusion in FY 12.

2. If so, what is the total number of times exclusions were invoked?

N/A 

Spotlight on Success

Out of all the activities undertaken by your agency since March 2011 to increase transparency and 

improve FOIA administration, describe here one success story that you would like to highlight as 

emblematic of your agency’s efforts.

DO implemented goFOIA, the document management tool for FOIA, which is more than a 

mere tracking system. It provides a collaborative work flow environment for document 

processing and collaboration. 

The IRS continued its agency-wide FOIA and OPEN awareness campaign by developing, 

publishing and marketing a web-based video presentation building on the joint Deputy 

Commissioner memo to all IRS employees. The video emphasizes each employee’s 

responsibilities with regard to FOIA, including timely responses to records requests from 

Disclosure and providing records directly to taxpayers when asked. The presentation is 

augmented with companion guides developed to support the major job classifications 

within IRS as employees provide records directly to the taxpayers with whom they are 

working. This line of products were implemented in January 2013. 

The IRS2go mobile app has nearly 500,000 downloads to Smartphones since its version 2 

launch in February 2012. The app allows taxpayers to view the IRS’s YouTube videos on 

their English, American Sign Language and Multilingual Channels.
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Updated: March 2013

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