FOIA Advisor

FOIA News: OGIS Part 3

FOIA News (2015-2023)Allan BlutsteinComment

Understanding the Office of Government Information Services (part 3/4)

By Office of Gov’t Info. Serv., FOIA Ombudsman, Oct. 27, 2022

In our previous two blog posts “Understanding the Office of Government Information Services” parts 1 and 2, we provided a basic overview of how OGIS is structured and highlighted aspects of our dispute resolution program. In this post we’ll touch on the specific nuances of our compliance program. 

How does OGIS’s compliance work?

OGIS reviews agency policies, procedures and compliance through an impartial lens as an advocate for the FOIA process. We do this by:

  • assessing issues that we observe while assisting requesters and agencies with the FOIA process;

  • offering assessments of individual agency FOIA programs;

  • highlighting agency best practices;

  • reviewing and commenting on proposed agency FOIA regulations;

  • reviewing and suggesting improvements to agency FOIA materials;

  • working with agencies when we observe policies and procedures that appear to OGIS to be inconsistent with FOIA law or policy; and

  • reviewing government and non-government reports on FOIA activities and compliance.

Read more here.