[Libs-Or] INFORMATION: Fwd: [District Dispatch] Audit Reveals Wide Variation in Agency Plans to Make Government More Open

[Diedre Conkling]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <jterry at alawash.org>
Date: Mon, May 3, 2010 at 8:03 AM
Subject: [District Dispatch] Audit Reveals Wide Variation in Agency Plans to
Make Government More Open
To: district at ala.org


FULL POST w/ALL WORKING HYPERLINKS: http://bit.ly/bHL8Vh
--
District Dispatch has posted a new item, 'Audit Reveals Wide Variation in
Agency Plans to Make Government More Open'

SOURCE: http://www.ombwatch.org/node/10968

Audit Reveals Wide Variation in Agency Plans to Make Government More Open
NASA, HUD, EPA Produce Strong Plans; DOJ Plan Disappoints

WASHINGTON, May 3, 2010—A ranking of agencies’ Open Government Plans
compiled during an independent audit reveals the strongest and weakest
agency
plans, with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) at the
top
of the list and the Department of Justice (DOJ) at the bottom. Strikingly,
the
audit also found that several agencies that are supposed to lead by example
on
the government openness front failed to do so in their Open Government
Plans.

The audit was organized by OpenTheGovernment.org and conducted by volunteers
from nonprofit groups, academia, and other organizations that serve the
public
interest, including OMB Watch, who have experience working with the agencies
and evaluating information policies.

The Obama administration’s Dec. 8, 2009, Open Government Directive (OGD)
required executive agencies to develop and post Open Government Plans by
April
7, 2010. The OGD specified elements related to transparency, participation,
and
collaboration that must be included in the plans. The audit acknowledges
that
all the agencies required to produce a plan completed them within the four
month deadline. This alone is an important indicator of the administration’s
commitment to openness.

The evaluation forms used for the audit rate the extent to which agencies
meet
the administration’s standards as spelled out in the OGD and provide bonus
points for exceeding the requirements. In some instances, the results of
these
evaluations differ significantly from evaluations recently released by the
White House. The differences are to be expected given our evaluators’
perspectives as independent non-governmental organizations and our awarding
of
bonus points.

Including the bonus points, NASA, the Department of Housing and Urban
Development, and the Environmental Protection Agency created plans that
serve
as models for other agencies by going beyond all the OGD requirements.

Many agencies have taken innovative steps in their plans. For example, the
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has made specific commitments
for
identifying and publishing high-value data sets this year. NASA is inviting
the
public to collaborate in the development of technologies that are core to
its
mission. And agencies have already begun to implement commitments made in
their
plans, such as the Department of Labor’s Online Enforcement Database on
workplace safety, and to improve on work in place, like the Department of
Energy’s Open Energy Information platform.

The five lowest scores went to the Department of Treasury, Department of
Defense, Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Department of Energy, and
the
Department of Justice.

Of particular disappointment to many of the evaluators is the low ranking of
plans developed by OMB and DOJ. Given that OMB has responsibility overseeing
portions of the OGD, the evaluators expected the agency to seize this
opportunity to lead by example. For example, OMB easily could have taken
this
opportunity to make its new contractor accountability database – the Federal
Award Performance and Integrity Information System (FAPIIS) – accessible to
the public. Similarly, DOJ’s ranking at the bottom of the stack is
disappointing given its charge to implement the Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA), America’s oldest public access law, and Attorney General Eric
Holder’s guidance to federal agencies in 2009, which stated his strong
support for President Obama’s commitment to open government.

The evaluators view these plans and the audit as the beginning of a process
to
make government more transparent, participatory, and collaborative. Many of
the
weakness noted in the plans can, and should, be easily addressed if agencies
live up to their commitments to treat these plans as “first drafts” and
“living documents.”

We invite agencies to revise their plans by the end of May.
OpenTheGovernment.org will revisit those plans in early June to see how
agencies have responded to this audit. In the final analysis, an open
government plan is really only as strong as its execution, and there is much
work left to do to make sure agencies live up to their promises.

For a full list of how the agencies’ plans rank, click here:
http://bit.ly/OGovRank

For the full results of the audit and links to agency evaluations, click
here:
http://bit.ly/OGovEvals

OMB Watch will have more on the audit and its implications in the coming
days
on its blog, The Fine Print, and in its newsletter, The Watcher.

Evaluators: American Association of Law Libraries, American Library
Association, Center for Democracy and Technology, Citizens for
Responsibility
and Ethics in Washington, OMB Watch, OpenTheGovernment.org, Project on
Government Oversight, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility,
Sunlight Foundation, Union of Concerned Scientists, faculty and students at
the
University of Maryland College of Information Studies, and a volunteer, Ted
Smith (Health Central, for identification purposes only).

# # #

OMB Watch is a nonprofit government watchdog organization dedicated to
promoting government accountability, citizen participation in public policy
decisions, and the use of fiscal and regulatory policy to serve the public
interest. Find OMB Watch on Facebook and Twitter.

OpenTheGovernment.org is a coalition of more than 65 consumer and good
government groups, librarians, environmentalists, labor, journalists, and
others, focused on pushing back governmental secrecy and promoting openness.

You may view the latest post at
http://www.wo.ala.org/districtdispatch/?p=4841

You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates
are
posted.
Best regards,
Jacob Roberts
jroberts at alawash.org



-- 
Diedre Conkling
Lincoln County Library District
P.O. Box 2027
Newport, OR  97365
Work phone & fax:  541-265-3066
Work email:  diedre at beachbooks.org
Home email:  diedre08 at gmail.com
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