Freedom of Information Act Annual Report for FY 2006 (Covers October 1, 2005 through September 30, 2006).
During FY2006, the median processing time for all combined initial requests was 127 calendar days. Not all requests took 127 calendar days to process. Requests for readily available documents that involved little or no review were processed faster. Other requests took longer to process for a variety of reasons. Some requesters asked for a large volume of documents that had to be located, photocopied, and reviewed. USAID is an international organization that has many overseas offices. Delays in our response time occurred when documents had to be transmitted from the overseas offices to Washington. USAID received many requests for procurement-related documentation, especially for grant/cooperative agreement proposals, relating to contracts, grants and cooperative agreements. Such requests were often time-consuming and labor-intensive because they involved repeated discussions with the awardees concerning the ramifications of releasing requested information that may be confidential commercial or proprietary information.
