While greater openness serves the public interest, it also increases the burden on FOIA-handling units within agencies and departments.
When Demand Outstrips Capacity
In the United States in 2007, organizations spent about $40 million addressing FOIA requests. The hefty price tag is due partly to the fact that despite today's technological advances in FOIA processing, it remains mostly paper-based, manual and time-consuming.With request volumes rising, the gap between traditional, hands-on approaches and agencies' capacity to respond is growing wider -- especially as public and legislative expectations of timely responses become more insistent. Today organizations are mandated to meet specific timelines for new requests and simultaneously reduce what has become a sizable backlog - targets that are challenging enough considered separately and downright daunting when confronted together.
Key Considerations
Automation of the request-handling process can significantly increase capacity and help organizations optimize the use of their resources. It also reduces errors and helps minimize appeals -- critically important for government agencies forced to pay appeals costs out of their own budgets.When transitioning to an automated FOIA system, government agencies should take a flexible approach that permits evolution instead of reinvention, and that accounts for the human dimension of change. Working with a vendor that deals exclusively in the area of FOIA request processing has particular advantages. As such a firm is likely to have better, more in-depth understanding of both the external demands on the organization and also the day-to-day operational realities involved.
Flexibility: Transformation can't happen overnight, especially not with processes as sensitive and complex as FOIA request handling, so it's essential to break down the transition into manageable phases. A modular solution with integrated components permits this.
Evolution: Transformation is challenging enough without completely reinventing an organization's ways of working. Rather than allow technology to dictate process, agencies should invest the time in finding a solution that will accommodate, enhance and evolve their existing business models.
Culture change: Transformation is as much about people as it is about technologies and systems. Communicating the change plan, getting buy-in from all staff, keeping people informed of progress and actively shaping the organizational culture to encourage acceptance of new, automated tools are all critical to achieving effective results.
An Automation Success Story
Government agencies in the U.S. and other countries are beginning to take advantage of automation - and are reporting extremely positive results. The Ontario Ministry of the Environment (MoE), a provincial government department in Canada, is one such body.Ontario's MoE receives more freedom of information requests than any other public entity in the country. This is because MoE information is essential to real estate transactions in the province: In other words, business hinges on the timely release of information. By the early 2000s, the ministry was struggling to meet its compliance targets. Its paper-based system, designed for several hundred requests a year, simply couldn't keep up as the number of requests started reached into the thousands.
"In 2001, we received 3,800 FOI requests and our compliance rate was just 13 percent. Our system wasn't designed to handle the volume we were receiving. It didn't have the rigor or flexibility that our business needed," said Donna Currie, FOI coordinator for the ministry.
Further keeping the MoE from meeting its 30-day turnaround target was the fact that for every request received
it had to consult with regional and district offices. Each of these exchanges demanded huge amounts of photocopying and communication by mail.
By evolving to an integrated, automated system, the MoE boosted its compliance rate from 13 percent to 87 percent. Today the Ministry is making its entire consultative process electronic -- vastly reducing the time and effort associated with each request. Today users can log, route, manage and report on all FOI requests electronically.
"Our FOI compliance record signals to the outside world that we are committed to transparency and citizen engagement," said Currie.
Faster, Better and Greener
The ministry was able to streamline its request-response team from 15 people to 10 people, with more resources focused on document review and backlog reduction, and fewer resources on administration. Tighter integration between the central office and record holders has reduced errors and appeals to the lowest levels ever.In addition, the ability to scan documents at the source eliminated much of the MoE's need for photocopying, and online communication radically reduced the amount of paper consumed on an annual basis (especially important to an organization with an environmental mandate). The MoE has cut the number of pages it prints or photocopies by 90 percent -- from nearly one million to less than 100,000 per year.
Not an 'All or Nothing' Proposition
Some agencies worry that automating their FOIA processes will mean throwing out their established processes and starting over from scratch. Unwilling to take such a radical step, the MoE instead chose a vendor whose solutions permitted more of an evolutionary approach. The ministry implemented its automated systems in stages -- starting with case management and electronic redaction -- and integrated the new processes seamlessly with its existing methods and organizational structures.
The MoE recognized early that transforming its systems also required a change in its culture. "It wasn't just about technology, it was about people and processes," said Currie. "It was a change-management challenge, really. We had to clearly communicate the benefits to our field offices and keep the lines of communication open."
Building a system that was customizable to the unique needs of the ministry, and doing so in a thoughtful, phased way, helped win staff support for the evolution. (Another important selling point was the fact that using modern, digital technology spared staff the discomfort of chapped, chafed hands that typically comes after a day of handling tape and paper.) The flexibility and adaptability of the new solution are now foundations for continuous improvement within the ministry's Information Access and Management Branch.
Nicole Gibson is the director of marketing at Privasoft. With more than 15 years experience applying technology to government business processes, she has been working in the FOIA industry with Privasoft for 4 years.
