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Make FOI Compliance Easy on Yourselves
Are public
sector organisations being convinced to spend a fortune on document management
systems to manage Freedom of Information (FOI) enquiries? For most a powerful
internet search engine would suffice...
David Macken, Managing Director
of System Associates
 SYSTEM
ASSOCIATES, specialists in the delivery of enterprise-wide internet
technologies for the public sector is extremely concerned about corporate
software vendors that are persuading public sector organisations to splash
out on enterprise-level document management systems, which are superfluous
to their needs.
According to Kable, a public sector research and publishing organisation,
the typical cost of a document management implementation in the public
sector was between £80,000 and £500,000. Some large public
sector bodies are spending millions. Clearly, this situation is nonsense,
not all FOI enquiries will necessarily even involve the formal search
of documents.
Software vendors are justifying the sales of document management systems
exclusively on the basis of the FOI Act, which is like using a sledgehammer
to crack a nut. Where the full features of a document management system
are not required, finding an effective solution to comply with the Freedom
of Information Act need not cost the earth, nor take hundreds of man hours
to implement. This article discusses some of the cost effective measures
that will help fulfil Freedom of Information requirements and alleviate
pressures on public sector resources.
What is the Freedom of Information Act?
January 2005 sees the final implementation of the Freedom of Information
Act (FOI), where all public bodies in England, Wales and Northern Ireland
must open their doors to reasonable public enquiries and effectively respond
within 20 days.
If they miss the deadline, or do not provide the relevant information
requested, the enquirer can appeal to an independent Freedom of Information
Commissioner, in the first instance, and then to a special tribunal for
further appeals. Should this happen, the public bodies involved must justify
their actions and demonstrate that they went through the proper procedures
to meet the 20 day deadline.
The public sector has had nearly four years to get ready for the Freedom
of Information Act. However, according to market analysts, the Ark Group,
70% of Government organisations are not adequately prepared for the Act.
The main reason for this, as I see it, is that government organisations
have not taken a holistic view of managing and recording enquiries and
instead are adopting an ostrich approach to the impending deadline.
No-one quite knows what the demands on administration will be once the
Freedom of Information Act comes into force. Probably the best guide is
to review what has happened in other countries that have implemented similar
standards.
In 1978, when Australia implemented a similar Freedom of Information Act,
there were concerns about the volume of enquiries that might be generated
and the burden on administration.
The reality was actually a slow trickle of enquiries that warranted far
fewer resources than initially expected. Today, most enquiries come from
opposing political organisations and investigative journalists with the
aim of harassing or embarrassing the current government. Many others are
marketing organisations, welfare groups, immigration organisations and
librarians.
What seems clear from this is that expensive document management systems,
or lengthy strategic consultations to avoid ‘being caught out’,
may not necessarily equip an organisation better for the FOI Act. Instead,
implementing a relatively simple workflow system that can be ‘bolted
on’ to existing systems will allow enquiries to be fed to the correct
individual and then monitored to ensure that it is effectively dealt with.
It will accurately record how the enquiry has been handled and the processes
and timescales involved in order to respond to it.
Should there be an FOI investigation, all the information required from
the workflow system can be accessed via an intranet, alleviating additional
burden on management who might otherwise have to prepare and provide all
the information to the FOI commissioner.
This audit trail can also be used to ensure processes are working effectively
on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis, making government organisations
more accountable according to performance measures. This analysis, in
turn can help identify whether there are any areas of weakness such as
speed of response, or difficulty in accessing the information required.
Information accessibility is also an important element for complying with
the Freedom of Information Act. Most public sector organisations are advanced
in terms of meeting e-GIF requirements and most documents in recent archives
are now available electronically. It is not uncommon for a government
intranet, particularly in central government, to host hundreds of thousands
of pages of information, but retrieval of this information will only be
as effective as the content management system and search engine that underpins
it.
Google-like search engine technology has been around for 10-15 years and
public sector bodies should be recognising and embracing it, yet many
government search engines adopt only ‘key word’ search functions
which are now woefully outdated and inadequate. When searching hundreds
and thousands of documents, they retrieve too much irrelevant information
and make it difficult to resolve specific queries.
So where are we now?
There is little doubt that past inefficiencies will have to change with
the implementation of the FOI Act, yet many positive moves have already
been made to make information more accessible. Public facing websites
empower the man on the street to find the information they are looking
for, yet inevitably it will not satisfy every query and an ineffective
search engine will undoubtedly lead to an increased number of enquiries,
all of which must be answered within 20 days.
Public sector organisations can evaluate how ready they are for the Freedom
of Information Act by asking themselves the following questions:
• Can the public easily find a lot
of the information they are looking for electronically?
• Can government employees easily retrieve electronically the information
they are looking for?
• Can a workflow system be applied to many of the processes used
in handling public requests for information?
• Can information about the status and handling of an enquiry be
made available via an organisation’s intranet?
If the answer is “no” to any or all of these, it need not
involve high costs and commitment of huge resources to get them right.
A co-ordinated and systematic approach can unify many of the systems already
in place and fine-tune them so that the Freedom of Information Act deadline
need not signify the start of administration melt down.
About System Associates
System Associates specialises in the delivery of enterprise-wide Internet
technologies, including advanced web management such as high availability
hosting, security and support. Working for organisations such as HM Treasury,
British Library, Greater London Authority, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, Buzz
Airlines and Deutsche Bank, its product portfolio includes a bespoke content
management framework called g-Serve; g-Seek a search engine module; a
media asset library; Freedom of Information workflow; single sign-on and
large online registration solutions. System Associates has particular
expertise in e-GIF and government-related specifications, accessibility,
technical architecture, project management, databases and integration.
System Associates. Unit 17, Grove Park, Waltham Road, White Waltham,
Maidenhead, Berkshire, SL6 3LW. Tel: 01628 511662; www.systemassociates.co.uk;
info@systemassociates.co.uk
IM@T Online December 2004
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