Source: United States Department of Justice
A new reporting functionality is now available to agencies on FOIA.gov to assist in the review and calculation of the Annual FOIA Report. The FOIA requires federal agencies to submit an Annual Report each year. These reports contain detailed statistics on various FOIA administration metrics. Data is submitted for review and published annually on FOIA.gov.
The Raw Data Validation Tool (“Tool”) enables agencies to upload their raw data, line-by-line information on each request from the fiscal year, onto templates into FOIA.gov. The Tool will then perform a series of logic checks on the data and will provide agencies with any errors it may find. Once the Tool has validated all uploaded data, it will combine all reporting metrics into an XML file for uploading into the system, bypassing the need to manually enter all reporting data. The Tool will calculate all required sections of the report, including all median and average processing times, backlog numbers, and more.
This Tool is optional. Agencies are still able to enter their data manually or by whatever means they have previously input their data into FOIA.gov.
All information for using the Tool, including the templates and the detailed Guidance Spreadsheet, can be found on OIP’s website. Those with questions are encouraged to contact OIP at DOJ.OIP.FOIA@usdoj.gov.