Final Report: Freedom of Information Act Annual Report Fiscal Year 2014

Agency for International Development (USAID) Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2014 provides information on the agency's FOIA activities. The report is available on the USAID website at www.usaid.gov/foia-requests/foia-annual-reports. The report lists the name, title, address, and telephone number of the person to contact with questions about the report as Alecia S. Sillah, Lead Government Information Specialist, U.S. Agency for International Development, Bureau for Management, Office of Management Services, Information and Records Division, 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Ronald Reagan Building, Room 2.07C, Washington, D.C. 20523-2701, (202) 712-1371. USAID receives FOIA requests in writing, by fax, or by e-mail. Requests should include an agreement to pay any FOIA processing fees, the requester's address and telephone number, and should be marked with the notation "FOIA REQUEST." The fax number for submitting requests is (202) 216-3070, and the e-mail address is [email protected]. The report lists the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of all individual agency components and offices that receive FOIA requests, including the FOIA Team, Bureau for Management, Office of Management Services, Information and Records Division, and the Director, Bureau for Management, Office of Management Services. In some cases, USAID was required to withhold requested information under one or more of the FOIA's exemptions. The number of instances in which USAID used an exemption in Fiscal Year 2014 is listed in Section V.B.3. Exemption 2 was used to protect information solely related to internal personnel rules or practices, while Exemptions 3 and/or 4 were normally used to protect commercial or financial information provided by contractors and grantees. The report defines various terms, including Administrative Appeal, Average Number, Backlog, Consultation, Exemption 3 Statute, FOIA Request, Full Grant, Full Denial, Median Number, Multi-Track Processing, Expedited Processing, Simple Request, Complex Request, Grant/Partial Denial, Pending Request or Pending Administrative Appeal, Perfected Request, Processed Request or Processed Administrative Appeal, Range in Number of Days, and Time Limits. The report also provides concise descriptions of the nine FOIA exemptions, including Exemption 1, Classified national defense and foreign relations information; Exemption 2, Internal agency rules and practices; Exemption 3, Information that is prohibited from disclosure by another federal law; Exemption 4, Trade secrets and other confidential business information; Exemption 5, Inter-agency or intra-agency communications that are protected by legal privileges; Exemption 6, Information involving matters of personal privacy; Exemption 7, Records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes; Exemption 8, Records or information reflecting the internal personnel rules and practices of an agency; and Exemption 9, Geological and geophysical information and data, including maps, concerning wells and other sub-surface fluid locations on lands.