On Freedom of Information Act Front, More Agencies Contract Out

[Khephra]

Private Firms Have Growing Role in Handling Backlogs of Requests for Government Records

By Christopher Lee

Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 8, 2004; Page A21



Steven Aftergood has waited so long for federal officials to answer his requests for public information that, he says jokingly, he may be in his grave before some of the documents land on his desk.

snip.....

These days, however, some agencies say they have found a new way to combat such delays. They are turning increasingly to private contractors to help shrink their mounting backlogs of FOIA requests.

snip.....

Many contract workers "are former officials who retired from civil service that have got the background, and very often they still have an active clearance," said William Ferroggiaro, a past president of the American Society of Access Professionals, a nonprofit group that works on FOIA issues.

snip.........

Contractors who have performed FOIA work for federal agencies include CACI International Inc. of Arlington and McNeil Technologies of Springfield. FOIA Group Inc., a 16-year-old D.C.-based company that helps businesses and nonprofits submit FOIA requests, plans to diversify by moving into processing such requests for agencies, said Jeff Stachewicz, a founder of the firm.

"That is going to be the wave of the future," Stachewicz said, citing the Bush administration's policy of moving more government work to private contractors if they can do the work better and more cheaply. "For many years, agencies thought they could not delegate this type of function to private contractors."



more.........

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23282-2004Jun7.html

[Khephra]

1. kick

:kick:

[Khephra]

2. kick

[jdj]

3. CACI sure has their fingers in all the pies, don't they...

I don't know if I would trust them to process a FOIA request on, say, Abu Ghraib, or something.

As the church lady would say, how convenient.

[tom_paine]

4. Privatization, like the Hessians in Iraq has the purpose of being able

to perform corrupt activities outisde oversight.

"Privatizing the Commons" was a Nazi platform, as well as a Bushevik Platform.

is this a coincidence?

[stickdog]

5. Frredom of Oversight Act? (nt)