Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Service Center
FDIC Annual Report on the Freedom of Information Act
Fiscal Year 1999 (October 1, 1998-- September 30, 1999)
I. Basic Information Regarding Report
A. Name, title,
address, and telephone number of person(s) to be contacted
with questions about the report:
Fredrick Lee Fisch
Senior Attorney (FOIA/Privacy Act Officer)
Office of the Executive Secretary
550 17th St. N.W., Room F-4040
Washington, D.C. 20429
(202) 898-3819
B. Electronic address for report on the World Wide Web: http://www.fdic.gov/about/freedom/reports.html
C. How to obtain
a copy of the report in paper form:
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
Office of the Executive Secretary
550 17th St. N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20429
Attn: FOIA/PA Unit
II. How to Make a FOIA Request
The following is the link to the FDIC's FOIA Guide: http://www.fdic.gov/about/freedom/Guide.html
Requests may be made via facsimile to (202) 898-8778, through the Electronic FOIA Office on the FDIC web site, via direct e-mail to efoia@fdic.gov, in writing to the address in Section 1(C) above.
A. Names,
addresses and telephone numbers of all individual agency
components and offices that receive FOIA
requests.
All requests are routed through and processed by the
FDIC's Office of the Executive Secretary, located at
the address listed in Section 1(C) of this report.
B. Brief
description of the agency's response-time
ranges.
Response times are from 1 day up to greater than six months
in rare cases.
C. Brief
description of why some requests are not
granted.
Requests are denied or partially denied primarily under
FOIA exemptions (b)(4), (b)(5), (b)(6) and (b)(8). Because
the FDIC is a federal financial institution regulatory
agency as well as the appointed receiver of virtually all
failed financial institutions in the U.S., FDIC receives
much privileged or private financial information concerning
individuals, banking and business entities. Therefore,
exemptions (b)(4) and (b)(6) are used frequently to
withhold this exempt material. Other exemptions are used
less frequently, and records sometimes cannot be
located.
III. Definitions of Terms and Acronyms Used in the Report (to be included in each report)
A.
Agency-specific acronyms or other terms.
None.
B. Basic terms
expressed in common terminology.
1. FOIA/PA request -- Freedom of
Information Act/Privacy Act request. A FOIA request is
generally a request for access to records concerning a
third party, an organization, or a particular topic of
interest. A Privacy Act request is a request for records
concerning oneself; such requests are also treated as FOIA
requests. (All requests for access to records, regardless
of which law is cited by the requester, are included in
this report.)
2. Initial Request -- a request to a
federal agency for access to records under the Freedom of
Information Act.
3. Appeal -- a request to a federal
agency asking that it review at a higher administrative
level a full denial or partial denial of access to records
under the Freedom of Information Act, or any other FOIA
determination such as a matter pertaining to fees.
4. Processed Request or Appeal -- a
request or appeal for which an agency has taken a final
action on the request or the appeal in all respects.
5. Multi-track processing -- a system in
which simple requests requiring relatively minimal review
are placed in one processing track and more voluminous and
complex requests are placed in one or more other tracks.
Requests in each track are processed on a first-in/first
out basis. A requester who has an urgent need for records
may request expedited processing (see below).
6. Expedited processing -- an agency will
process a FOIA request on an expedited basis when a
requester has shown an exceptional need or urgency for the
records which warrants prioritization of his or her request
over other requests that were made earlier.
7. Simple request -- a FOIA request that
an agency using multi-track processing places in its
fastest (non-expedited) track based on the volume and/or
simplicity of records requested.
8. Complex request -- a FOIA request that
an agency using multi-track processing places in a slower
track based on the volume and/or complexity of records
requested.
9. Grant -- an agency decision to
disclose all records in full in response to a FOIA request.
10. Partial grant -- an agency decision
to disclose a record in part in response to a FOIA request,
deleting information determined to be exempt under one or
more of the FOIA's exemptions; or a decision to
disclose some records in their entireties, but to withhold
others in whole or in part.
11. Denial -- an agency decision not to
release any part of a record or records in response to a
FOIA request because all the information in the requested
records is determined by the agency to be exempt under one
or more of the FOIA's exemptions, or for some
procedural reason (such as because no record is located in
response to a FOIA request).
12. Time limits -- the time period in the
Freedom of Information Act for an agency to respond to a
FOIA request (ordinarily 20 working days from proper
receipt of a "perfected" FOIA request).
13. "Perfected" request --a
FOIA request for records which adequately describes the
records sought, which has been received by the FOIA office
of the agency or agency component in possession of the
records, and for which there is no remaining question about
the payment of applicable fees.
14. Exemption 3 statute -- a separate
federal statute prohibiting the disclosure of a certain
type of information and authorizing its with holding under
FOIA subsection (b)(3).
15. Median number -- the middle, not
average, number. For example, of 3, 7, and 14, the median
number is 7.
16. Average number -- the number obtained
by dividing the sum of a group of numbers by the quantity
of numbers in the group. For example, of 3, 7, and 14, the
average number is 8.
IV. Exemption 3 Statutes
A. List of
Exemption 3 statutes relied on by agency during current
fiscal year.
The FDIC did not use Exemption 3 during this fiscal
year.
A. Numbers of
initial requests (The total of the numbers in Lines 1 and
2, minus the number in Line 3, should equal the number in
Line 4).
1. Number of requests pending as of end of preceding
fiscal year: 147
2. Number of requests received during current fiscal year:
921
3. Number of requests processed during current fiscal
year: 951
4. Number of requests pending as of end of current fiscal
year: 117
B. Disposition of
initial requests.
1. Number of total grants: 574
2. Number of partial grants: 183
3. Number of denials: 43
(See § V(B)(4)(c) infra for requests withdrawn by the
requester)
(2) Exemption 2: 2
(3) Exemption 3: 0
(4) Exemption 4: 114
(5) Exemption 5: 85
(6) Exemption 6: 156
(7) Exemption 7(A): 12
(8) Exemption 7(B): 0
(9) Exemption 7(C): 27
(10) Exemption 7(D): 1
(11) Exemption 7(E): 1
(12) Exemption 7(F): 0
(13) Exemption 8: 48
(14) Exemption 9: 0
(b) referrals: 54
(c) request withdrawn: 151
(d) fee-related reason: 68
(e) records not reasonably described: 7
(f) not a proper FOIA request for some other reason: 0
(g) not an agency record: 0
(h) duplicate request: 0
(i) other (specify): (Government in the Sunshine Act) 6
VI. Appeals of Initial Denials of FOIA/PA Requests
A. Numbers of
appeals.
1. Number of appeals received during fiscal year: 45
2. Number of appeals processed during fiscal year: 45
B. Disposition of
appeals.
1. Number completely upheld: 9
2. Number partially upheld: 18
3. Number completely reversed: 16
(2) Exemption 2: 0
(3) Exemption 3: 0
(4) Exemption 4: 19
(5) Exemption 5: 10
(6) Exemption 6: 14
(7) Exemption 7(A): 1
(8) Exemption 7(B): 0
(9) Exemption 7(C): 1
(10) Exemption 7(D): 0
(11) Exemption 7(E): 0
(12) Exemption 7(F): 0
(13) Exemption 8: 6
(14) Exemption 9: 1
(b) referrals: 3
(c) request withdrawn: 2
(d) fee related reason: 0
(e) records not reasonably described: 0
(f) not a proper FOIA request for some other reason: 0
(g) not an agency record: 0
(h) duplicate request: 0
(i) other (specify): (Government in the Sunshine Act) 2
VII Compliance with Time Limits/Status of Pending Requests
A. Median
processing time for requests processed during the
year.
1. Simple Requests.
(b) median number of days to process: 37 calendar days
(b) median number of days to process: 56 calendar days
Many of these requests were complex matters requiring great attention to detail, the tasking of multiple Offices and Divisions of the FDIC, and much redaction and review time. Many of the responsive records were also located in remote field sites. Because of the FDIC's customary diligence in dealing with members of the news media, most of these requesters were issued partial responses as soon as some of the records became available. Interim responses were accomplished in far fewer days than the overall elapsed processing time.
B. Status of
pending requests.
1. Number of requests pending as of end of current fiscal
year: 117
2. Median number of days that such requests were pending
as of that date: 35 calendar days
VIII. Comparisons with Previous Year
A. Comparison of
number of requests received.
Prior Reporting Period: 844
Current Reporting Period: 921
B. Comparison of
number of requests processed.
Prior Reporting Period: 858
Current Reporting Period: 951
C. Comparison of
median number of days open requests had been pending as of
the end of the fiscal year.
Prior Reporting Period: 50 calendar days
Current Reporting Period: 35 calendar days
D. Other
statistics significant to agency:
Open FOIA requests were reduced from 147 at the beginning
of the fiscal year, to 117 at the end of the fiscal year,
and requests more than six months old were reduced to 56%
of the level pending at the end of the immediately prior
reporting period. Requests greater than six months old have
had a steady decline at the FDIC since January 1996, when
the FDIC experienced a high of 294 such requests (many of
these came from the Resolution Trust Corporation, which
sunset on 12/31/95 and whose operations were assumed by the
FDIC), down to 10 such requests at the end of this
reporting period. Due to the gains in productivity from the
implementation of FDIC's fast-track FOIA processing
program, the FDIC has closed more FOIA requests in shorter
time periods than during the previous reporting year.
E. Other
narrative statements describing agency efforts to improve
timeliness of FOIA performance and to make records
available to the public (e.g., backlog-reduction efforts;
specification of average number of hours per processed
request; training activities; public availability of new
categories of records)
The FDIC undertakes detailed quarterly analyses of
outstanding and closed FOIA requests. The results of these
analyses are disseminated among top management of the FDIC
in order for them to track the progress of processing FOIA
requests within the various components of the agency.
The number of requests received on the FDIC's web site has increased steadily, and the FDIC has posted a great deal of information directly on the web site, such as records concerning Y2K readiness, FDIC enforcement actions, and information concerning FDIC member banks. The on-line agency FOIA Guide also helps requesters to better target their requests and includes links to the FDIC's FOIA regulation, the Justice Department's Guide to the FOIA, and popular FOIA records. During this fiscal year, the FDIC's Senior Attorney in charge of the agency's FOIA program conducted two formal training sessions on the FOIA and the Privacy Act for agency employees who work on these issues. Each training session was 1 1/2 hours plus Q & A and included an audience of 35 - 50 FDIC employees. An additional third training session was conducted at FDIC's Northeast Service Center in Hartford, Connecticut on October 7, 1998. This was a half day session conducted jointly by the FDIC's Senior FOIA Attorney and the Office of Information and Privacy.
The FOIA program was the subject of a 1999 evaluation by the FDIC's Office of the Inspector General (OIG). While the evaluation report made some suggestions for improvement in FDIC's FOIA program, the report also stated that the FDIC had made significant progress in reducing its backlog of outstanding FOIA requests from over 700 in 1996 to 150 at the time of the report's completion (and down to 117 as of the end of the current reporting period). The FOIA Unit has taken action on nearly all of the recommendations in the OIG evaluation, including increased communications with FOIA requesters, improved internal reporting procedures and eliminating the 12-month old category of requests. The OIG responded again to the FOIA Unit by stating that the evaluation staff was quite pleased with the actions taken by the FOIA Unit to increase the efficiency of FOIA operations.
The FOIA program has also been targeted within the FDIC to help implement the FDIC's Knowledge Management (KM) Program. The KM program will assist the FDIC in creating, maintaining, and archiving agency records in electronic formats, and may lead to more increased efficiency in the operation of the FDIC's FOIA program. The FOIA application of the KM program is in the design stage, with FOIA staff and management currently reviewing on-screen options in a mock-up model.
Even prior to the testing of the KM FOIA application, the FOIA Unit initiated electronic transmission of all FOIA requests to the Divisions and Offices where responsive records may be located. This has helped to increase the FDIC's efficiency in the processing of FOIA requests by placing the requests immediately with staff who likely have custody of responsive records. FDIC's preliminary assessments show that this practice reduces overall response time by one to two business days.
IX. Costs/FOIA Staffing
A. Staffing
levels.
1. Number of full-time FOIA personnel: 10
2. Number of personnel with part-time or occasional FOIA
duties (in total work-years): 8.4
3. Total number of personnel (in work-years): 18.4
B. Total costs
(including staff and all resources).
1. FOIA processing (including appeals): $1,444,000.00
2. Litigation-related activities: $63,600.00
3. Total costs: $1,507,600.00
C. Statement of
additional resources needed for FOIA compliance
(optional):
None noted
X. Fees
This includes charges for search, review, document
duplication, and any other direct costs permitted under
agency regulations.
A. Total amount
of fees collected by agency for processing
requests:
$32,516
B. Percentage
of total costs:
2.16%
XI. FOIA
Regulations (Including Fee Schedule):
The following is the printed version of FDIC's FOIA
Regulation, with an electronic version available to the
public at: http://www.fdic.gov/regulations/laws/rules/2000-3800.html#2000part309.
§ 309.4
Publicly available records.
(a) Records available on the FDIC's World Wide Web
page--
(2) Documents required to be made available via computer telecommunications.
(B) Statements of policy and interpretations adopted by the Board of Directors that are not published in the Federal Register;
(C) Administrative staff manuals and instructions to staff that affect the public;
(D) Copies of all records released to any person under § 309.5 that, because of the nature of their subject matter, the FDIC has determined are likely to be the subject of subsequent requests;
(E) A general index of the records referred to in paragraph (a)(2)(i)(D) of this section.
(c) Applicable fees.
(ii) Information on the FDIC's World Wide Web page is available to the public without charge. If, however, information available on the FDIC's World Wide Web page is provided pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act request processed under § 309.5, then fees apply and will be assessed pursuant to § 309.5(f).
§ 309.5
Procedures for requesting records.
(a) Definitions. For purposes of this section:
(2) Direct costs means those expenditures the FDIC actually incurs in searching for, duplicating, and, in the case of commercial requesters, reviewing records in response to a request for records.
(3) Duplication means the process of making a copy of a record necessary to respond to a request for records or for inspection of original records that contain exempt material or that cannot otherwise be directly inspected. Such copies can take the form of paper copy, microfilm, audiovisual records, or machine readable records (e.g., magnetic tape or computer disk).
(4) Educational institution means a preschool, a public or private elementary or secondary school, an institution of undergraduate or graduate higher education, an institution of professional education, and an institution of vocational education, which operates a program or programs of scholarly research.
(5) Noncommercial scientific institution means an institution that is not operated on a commercial basis as that term is defined in paragraph (a)(1) of this section, and which is operated solely for the purpose of conducting scientific research, the results of which are not intended to promote any particular product or industry.
(6) Representative of the news media means any person primarily engaged in gathering news for, or a free-lance journalist who can demonstrate a reasonable expectation of having his or her work product published or broadcast by, an entity that is organized and operated to publish or broadcast news to the public. The term news means information that is about current events or that would be of current interest to the general public.
(7) Review means the process of examining records located in response to a request for records to determine whether any portion of any record is permitted to be withheld as exempt information. It includes processing any record for disclosure, e.g., doing all that is necessary to excise them or otherwise prepare them for release.
(8) Search includes all time spent looking for material that is responsive to a request, including page-by-page or line-by-line identification of material within records. Searches may be done manually and/or by computer using existing programming.
(ii) By facsimile clearly marked Freedom of Information Act Request to (202) 898-8778; or
(iii) By sending a letter to the Office of the Executive Secretary, ATTN: FOIA/PA Unit, 550 17th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20429.
(ii) Whether the requester is an educational institution, noncommercial scientific institution, or news media representative; (iii) A statement agreeing to pay the applicable fees, or a statement identifying a maximum fee that is acceptable to the requester, or a request for a waiver or reduction of fees that satisfies paragraph (f)(1)(x) of this section; and
(iv) The preferred form and format of any responsive information requested, if other than paper copies.
(d) Processing requests.--
(2) Multitrack processing. (i) The FDIC provides different levels of processing for categories of requests under this part. Requests for records that are readily identifiable by the Office of the Executive Secretary and that have already been cleared for public release may qualify for fast-track processing. All other requests shall be handled under normal processing procedures, unless expedited processing has been granted pursuant to paragraph (d)(3) of this section. (ii) The FDIC will make the determination whether a request qualifies for fast-track processing. A requester may contact the FOIA/PA Unit to learn whether a particular request has been assigned to fast-track processing. If the request has not qualified for fast-track processing, the requester will be given an opportunity to refine the request in order to qualify for fast-track processing. Changes made to requests to obtain faster processing must be in writing.
(3) Expedited processing. (i) Where a person requesting expedited access to records has demonstrated a compelling need for the records, or where the FDIC has determined to expedite the response, the FDIC shall process the request as soon as practicable. To show a compelling need for expedited processing, the requester shall provide a statement demonstrating that: (A) The failure to obtain the records on an expedited basis could reasonably be expected to pose an imminent threat to the life or physical safety of an individual; or (B) The requester can establish that they are primarily engaged in information dissemination as their main professional occupation or activity, and there is urgency to inform the public of the government activity involved in the request; and (C) The requester's statement must be certified to be true and correct to the best of the person's knowledge and belief and explain in detail the basis for requesting expedited processing. (ii) The formality of the certification required to obtain expedited treatment may be waived by the FDIC as a matter of administrative discretion.
(4) A requester seeking expedited processing will be notified whether expedited processing has been granted within ten (10) working days of the receipt of the request. If the request for expedited processing is denied, the requester may file an appeal pursuant to the procedures set forth in paragraph (h) of this section, and the FDIC shall respond to the appeal within ten (10) working days after receipt of the appeal.
(5) Priority of responses. Consistent with sound administrative process the FDIC processes requests in the order they are received in the separate processing tracks. However, in the agency's discretion, or upon a court order in a matter to which the FDIC is a party, a particular request may be processed out of turn.
(6) Notification.
(ii) In unusual circumstances as referred to in paragraph (d)(6)(i)(D) of this section, the time limit may be extended for a period of: (A) Ten (10) working days as provided by written notice to the requester, setting forth the reasons for the extension and the date on which a determination is expected to be dispatched; or (B) Such alternative time period as agreed to by the requester or as reasonably determined by the FDIC when the FDIC notifies the requester that the request cannot be processed in the specified time limit.
(iii) Unusual circumstances may arise when: (A) The records are in facilities, such as field offices or storage centers, that are not located at the FDIC's Washington office; (B) The records requested are voluminous or are not in close proximity to one another; or (C) There is a need to consult with another agency or among two or more components of the FDIC having a substantial interest in the determination.
(ii) The reasons for the determination;
Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation Records Fees
FEES SCHEDULE Date of Issuance: March 15,
1999
Date of Issuance: March 15, 1999
In accordance with 12 C.F.R. § 309.5(f), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation hereby sets forth the fees to be charged for the production of agency records. These fees will be effective for requests submitted no less than thirty days from the above date of issuance. Persons requesting records from the FDIC shall be charged for the direct costs of search, review and duplication as set forth at 12 C.F.R. § 309.5(f), unless such costs are less than $10.00.
The following hourly labor rates shall apply:
Professional level staff -- $49.00
Clerical level staff -- $21.00
Personal computer rate -- $1.75 per hour of use (in addition to hourly labor rates)
The charge for duplication of documents shall be $0.15 per page
Computer charges:
Magnetic tape reel/cartridge -- $10.00 each (plus data/labor costs)
Large tape reel/cartridge -- $100.00 each (plus data/labor costs)
Mainframe computer data costs: (plus hourly labor rates,
if applicable)
Disk I/O -- $0.35 per 1000 transactions
Tape I/O -- $0.20 per 1000 transactions
Printing -- $0.88 per 1000 lines
Special products:
The above rates shall be in effect until further notice.