Q1 Name of Component

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency

Q2 Did your FOIA professionals attend FOIA training? If

so, please indicate the source of the training. (Check as

many that apply)

DoD-wide FOIA/PA Training

Workshop

,

Department of

Justice

,

American Society of Access Professionals

(ASAP)

,

Component-sponsored training

Q3 Provide the total number of FOIA professionals (full

time and full time equivalent rounded-up) in your

component who attended FOIA training during this

reporting period.

2-5

Q4 If less than 80% of your component's FOIA

professionals attended training, please explain the plan

to ensure that all your FOIA professionals receive or

attend substantive FOIA training during the next

reporting year.

80% or more of our FOIA professionals attended

training

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Page 1: Please use the online tool to submit your 2018 Chief FOIA Officer Report.

Page 2: Section I: Steps Taken to Apply the Presumption of Openness

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2018 DoD Chief FOIA Officer Report
Q5 Did your component conduct FOIA training, covering

the application of the law and policy, for your

component's FOIA professionals during this reporting

period?

Yes,

Yes. We conducted FOIA training for our FOIA professionals

and FOIA SME POCS during our NGA FOIA/PA Working

Group. The training covered the application of the law and

policies, as well as, providing the FOIA SME POCS more

detailed information regarding FOIA/PA exemptions,

statutes, marking & classification redactions. We also

conducted FOIA Roadshows, where briefed agency

components during their staff meetings on FOIA/PA laws,

process, and procedures.

If yes, please provide details such as information

regarding the number of conferences or trainings held;

description of topics covered; and estimated number of

participants.:

Q6 Did your FOIA professionals engage in structured

outreach and dialogue with the requester community or

open government groups regarding your administration

of the FOIA? - This question addresses outreach that is

conducted outside of the individual request or appeal

process. For example, outreach activities can include

holding meetings with frequent requesters, conducting

surveys or otherwise soliciting requester feedback, or

participating in any other requester initiatives coordinated

by your Component or by others, such as OIP.

Yes,

Yes we participated in the FOIAXpress Conference, where

one of the FOIA Groups did a presentation and had a

question and answer session.

If yes, please briefly discuss the

engagement.:

Q7 Describe any efforts your component has undertake to inform non-FOIA professionals of their obligations under

the FOIA.

Non-FOIA professionals are invited to our FOIA/PA Working group where we discussed their obligations under the FOIA. We also input

our FOIA cases in the NGA tasking system. Through the tasking system, the non-FOIA professional is not only provided the request for

information/documents, but are reminded of their responsibilities and obligations under the FOIA. We also brief at the NGA New

Employee Orientation Seminar. Finally we conduct Road Shows for non-FOIA professionals and inform them of their FOIA obligations.

Q8 If there are any other initiatives undertaken by your Component to ensure that the presumption of openness is

being applied, please describe them here. If the initiatives are online, please provide links in your description.

We recently revised/updated our NGA FOIA/PA Instruction to ensure that the presumption of openness is being applied and understood

throughout the agency.

Page 3: Section II: Steps Taken to Ensure that Your Component Has an Effective System in Place

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2018 DoD Chief FOIA Officer Report
Q9 For Fiscal Year 2017, if your component's average

number of days to adjudicate requests for expedited

processing was more than ten days, please describe the

steps you will take to ensure that requests for expedited

processing are adjudicated within ten calendar days or

less. (Please see Section VIII.A of your Component's

Fiscal Year 2017 Annual FOIA Report.)

N/A

Q10 During the reporting period, did your component

conduct a self-assessment of its FOIA program?

Yes,

Yes. NGA's self-assessment consist of backlog case

reviews; appeal reviews and overall process reviews. After

our assessment, we also wrote an Standard Operating

Procedure (SOP) to ensure that we use our agency Tracking

System to ensure that FOIA/PA request are processed

timely and efficiently. The system holds our SMEs

accountable for providing responsive records in a timely

manner. We also developed several FOIA/PA tracking tools

to help ensure we process request more efficiently.

If yes, please describe the methods used, such as reviewing

Annual Report data, using active workflows and track

management, reviewing and updating processing

procedures, or use of the OIP FOIA Self-Assessment Toolkit,

etc..:

Q11 The FOIA Improvement Act of 2016 requires

additional notification to requesters about the services

provided by the component's FOIA Public Liaison.

Please provide an estimate of the number of times

requesters sought assistance from your FOIA Public

Liaison during FY17.

11-100

Q12 Please provide an estimate of the average number of pages processed for Expedited, Simple and Complex

cases.

100 pages. This is a very rough estimate.

Q13 If there are any other steps your component has undertaken to ensure that your FOIA system operates

efficiently and effectively, such as improving search processes, eliminating redundancy, etc., please describe them

here.

The agency conducted a market search to determine the best FOIA case management tool for processing FOIA cases and to improve

the search process. We collaborate with our Records Management team regularly to develop a tool that will improve our search

capabilities. We implemented the initial stages of NARA's Capstone approach to preserve senior's email. This will enhance our email

search capability.

Page 4: Section III: Steps Taken to Increase Proactive Disclosures

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2018 DoD Chief FOIA Officer Report
Q14 Has your component proactively disclosed

material during the past reporting year?

Yes,

We posted the NGA's FOIA/PA Instruction on the web, as

well as other FOIA required documents. We are in the

process of reconstruction our website so that it is more user

friendly and robust. Link:

https://www.nga.mil/Pages/Default.aspx

If yes, please provide examples including links to the posted

material.:

Q15 Did your component use any means (social media,

RSS feeds, email subscription, etc.) to publicize or

highlight important proactive disclosures for public

awareness?

No

Q16 Beyond posting new material, is your component

taking steps to make the posted information more useful

to the public, especially to the community of individuals

who regularly access your component's website?

Yes,

We are in the process of reconstruction our website so that it

is more user friendly and robust.

If yes, please describe and provide examples. Steps can

include soliciting feedback on posted material, improving

search capabilities on your component website, posting

material in open formats, making information available

through mobile applications, providing explanatory material,

etc.:

Q17 Are any other steps your component has taken to

increase proactive disclosures?

Other (please

specify):

We will evaluate once the website has been reconstructed.

Q18 Has your component identified any best practices to

leverage 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 deduplicate documents?

Yes,

NGA continues to use FOIAXpress to process FOIA cases.

We are upgrading to FOIAXpress v. 10 which includes more

features to process FOIA cases. We are migrating

FOIAXpress to the cloud. Lastly, we have implemented a

case management style to track and account for our FOIA

cases to include a deep dive quality control measure.

If yes, please describe the best practices, types of

technology used, and the impact on your FOIA Request

processing.:

Q19 If there are any other steps your agency has taken to improve use of technology in FOIA, please describe them

here.

N/A

Page 5: Section IV: Steps Taken to Greater Utilize Technology

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2018 DoD Chief FOIA Officer Report
Q20 If your component's backlog of initial FOIA requests

did not decrease, please explain why and describe the

causes that contributed to your inability to reduce the

request backlog. Also, please indicate if any of the

following were contributing factors:

The FOIA Request backlog did not decrease

because the number of incoming requests increased

,

The FOIA Request backlog did not decrease because

of a reduction of staff; to include a loss of contractors

Q21 If your component's backlog of FOIA appeals did

not decrease, please explain why and describe the

causes that contributed the inability to reduce the

appeals backlog. Also, please indicate if any of the

following were contributing factors:

Our appeals backlog did not decrease because of

a reduction of staff; to include a loss of contractors

Q22 If you reported a backlog of FOIA requests in Fiscal

Year 2016, did your component implement a backlog

reduction plan in Fiscal Year 2017? If so, describe your

component’s efforts in implementing this plan and note if

you were able to achieve backlog reduction in Fiscal

Year 2017.

Yes, we implemented a backlog reduction plan and

details are below

,

We implemented a plan to decrease the number of backlogs;

however, our number of staff was reduced this year. We

recently hired two contractors and have developed a

schedule to reduce this year's backlog.

If yes, please

describe.:

Q23 If your Component had a backlog of more than

1,000 requests in Fiscal Year 2017, what is your

Component's plan to reduce this backlog during Fiscal

Year 2018?

Not applicable

Q24 In Fiscal Year 2017, did your component close the

ten oldest requests that were pending as of the end of

Fiscal Year 2016?

No,

Seven of ten.

If not, how many did you close? If you had less than ten total

“oldest requests" to close, please so indicate. For example, if

you only had seven requests and you closed two of them,

you should note that you closed two out of seven “oldest

requests".:

Q25 Of the requests your component was able to close

from your ten oldest, please indicate how many of these

were closed because the request was withdrawn by the

requester. If any were closed because the request was

withdrawn, did you provide any interim responses prior

to the withdrawal?

We did not have any "ten oldest" requests withdrawn by

the requester

Page 6: Section V: Steps Taken to Improve Timeliness in Responding to Requests and Reduce Backlogs

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2018 DoD Chief FOIA Officer Report
Q26 In Fiscal Year 2017, did your component close the

ten oldest appeals that were pending as of the end of

Fiscal Year 2016?

No,

Due to the lack of staff we focused on closing the ten oldest

FOIA cases. However, due to staff increase will focus on

both the ten oldest appeals and FOIA cases.

If not, how many did you close? If you had less than ten total

“oldest appeals" to close, please so indicate. For example, if

you only had seven appeals and you closed two of them, you

should note that you closed two out of seven “oldest”

appeals.:

Q27 In Fiscal Year 2017, did your component close the

ten oldest consultations that were pending as of the end

of Fiscal Year 2016? This question is asking about your

component's consultation queue. That is, requests that

were sent to your component as a consultation from

another component or agency (Section XII.C of the

Annual Report).

No,

We closed two of ten.

If not, how many did you close? If you had less than ten total

“oldest consultations" to close, please so indicate. For

example, if you had seven and closed two, you should note

that you closed two out of seven “oldest” consultations.:

Q28 Please explain the obstacles your component faced

in closing its ten oldest requests, appeals, and

consultations from Fiscal Year 2016. Due to the lack of staff we were not able to close all the

FY16 ten oldest request.

We did have "ten oldest" in FY16 and the obstacles we

faced are::

Q29 If you were unable to close any of your ten oldest

requests or appeals because you were waiting to hear

back from other agencies on consultations you sent,

please provide the case number, the date the request

was initially received by your component, the date your

component sent the consultation, and the date when you

last contacted the agency where the consultation was

pending.

We did not have any "ten oldest" delayed by

consultations

Q30 If your component did not close its ten oldest

pending requests, appeals, and consultations, please

provide a plan describing how your component intends

to close those "ten oldest" requests, appeals, and

consultations during Fiscal Year 2018.

After recently hiring additional FOIA staff, we have

developed a plan to close out the ten oldest cases. Each of

the FOIA workers will be assigned cases to complete and

given a timeline to complete the case. The progress will be

monitored by the FOIA Program Manager.

Our plan: :

Page 7: Spotlight on Success

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2018 DoD Chief FOIA Officer Report
Q31 Since submission of your last Chief FOIA Officer Report, out of all the activities undertaken by your component

to increase transparency and improve FOIA administration, describe success stories you would like to highlight as

emblematic of your component’s efforts.

Our FOIA Road show is our best example undertaken to increase component transparency and improve FOIA administration. When we

sent out request for responsive records to the components, we were getting push back from them. The components were asking

questions like, "can we charge for our labor hours," "do we have to provide classified documents," or "do we have to provide rank-inperson documents." After getting these types of responses, we realized the components didn't understand the FOIA process or laws.

After the Road Shows, we are getting far less push back from the components for responsive records and receiving the records in a

much timelier manner.

Q32 Please provide information so we can compute the cost for compiling this Chief FOIA Officer Report. Insert the

equivalent grade and number of hours spent by your component on preparing this response. For instance: GS 9,

Step 2 / 2.5 Hours; GS 15 Step 5 / 0.5 Hours. We will use a separate mandated tool that calculates total costs tied

to personnel grade levels in aggregating the responses for the final DoD Report.

PBAN4 (GS-14) /2.5 Hours

Q33 When you click "Done" the report will be submitted

and you cannot make additional changes.

Respondent skipped this question

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2018 DoD Chief FOIA Officer Report