[open-government] A FOIA Victory for Sunlight and Spending Transparency

Thu Nov 21 23:02:50 UTC 2013

fyi everyone, great news from the US:

A FOIA Victory for Sunlight and Spending
Transparency<http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2013/11/21/a-foia-victory-for-sunlight-and-spending-transparency/>
by Ginger McCall <http://sunlightfoundation.com/people/gmccall/> and Kaitlin
Devine <http://sunlightfoundation.com/people/kdevine/>Nov. 21, 2013, 11:45
a.m.

[image: thumbdrives]<http://sunlightfoundation.com/media/2013/11/thumbdrives.jpg>Just
two days after the filing ofSunlight’s first
lawsuit<http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2013/11/18/sunlight-foundation-files-its-first-freedom-of-information-act-lawsuit/>,
and after more than five months of agency recalcitrance, we received the
documents we sued for under the Freedom of Information Act. These documents
include more than a decade's worth of solicitation and award notices from
FBO.gov, and we made them available to the public for downloading below.

The notices are broken out into two parts. One file has records with the
unique id for each notice, and almost all of the related data fields. The
other file with the *_desc* suffix has the unique id for each notice and a
longer prose field that includes the description of the notice.
Additionally, the numbers at the end of the file name indicate the year
range. So, fbo_data_archive_00_04.csv<http://sunlight-public.s3.amazonaws.com/fbo_foia/fbo_data_archive_00_04.csv>
is
for the years 2000-2004. The first files,
fbo_data_active.csv<http://sunlight-public.s3.amazonaws.com/fbo_foia/fbo_data_active.csv>,
contain all the active solicitations in FBO.gov right now.

Download the files we received from our FOIA request to the General
Services Administration:

   - http://sunlight-public.s3.amazonaws.com/fbo_foia/fbo_data_active.csv
   -
   http://sunlight-public.s3.amazonaws.com/fbo_foia/fbo_data_active_descr.csv
   -
   http://sunlight-public.s3.amazonaws.com/fbo_foia/fbo_data_archive_00_04.csv
   -
   http://sunlight-public.s3.amazonaws.com/fbo_foia/fbo_data_archive_00_04_desc.csv
   -
   http://sunlight-public.s3.amazonaws.com/fbo_foia/fbo_data_archive_05_07.csv
   -
   http://sunlight-public.s3.amazonaws.com/fbo_foia/fbo_data_archive_05_07_descr.csv
   -
   http://sunlight-public.s3.amazonaws.com/fbo_foia/fbo_data_archive_08_09.csv
   -
   http://sunlight-public.s3.amazonaws.com/fbo_foia/fbo_data_archive_08_09_descr.csv
   -
   http://sunlight-public.s3.amazonaws.com/fbo_foia/fbo_data_archive_10_11.csv
   -
   http://sunlight-public.s3.amazonaws.com/fbo_foia/fbo_data_archive_10_11_descr.csv
   -
   http://sunlight-public.s3.amazonaws.com/fbo_foia/fbo_data_archive_12_13.csv
   -
   http://sunlight-public.s3.amazonaws.com/fbo_foia/fbo_data_archive_12_13_desc.csv

Unfortunately, the GSA refused to disclose the contact information for
contracting officers from the Department of Defense and the Department of
Homeland Security, citing FOIA exemption 5 U.S.C S 552(b)(6), an
unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. These contract officers make
their emails public on each solicitation they post on FBO.gov, thus their
emails have already been made public at one time. We’re also unsure why
contracting officers from two specific departments warrant this exception,
but others don’t.  We will likely raise this issue before the D.C. District
Court judge.

Despite the partial denial, these notices will allow the public and
Sunlight’s developers to do a close analysis of government contracting
patterns. They include information about who is granting contracts, to whom
contracts are being granted, what is being contracted for, and how much
those contracts are worth. This will allow us to look for connections and
patterns that could implicate government waste or corruption. It will also
allow us to analyze the accuracy of information that the government is
reporting elsewhere, including on USASpending.gov.

This is a promising start for our FOIA litigation. As the drafters of the
Freedom of Information Act realized, sometimes, unfortunately, in order to
force agency action on a document request, you just have to go to court.

We invite the public to take a look at this the contract notice data and
let us know what your analysis reveals.
Tags:

-- 
Júlia Keserű
International Program Coordinator

1818 N Street NW, Suite 300
Washington, DC 20036
(1) 202-742-1520 *280

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