US Federal Government Mismanaging Electronic Records, Watchdog Group Says

Based on months of research and the results of an on-line survey, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has released a report entitled Record Chaos: The Deplorable State of Electronic Record Keeping in the Federal Government which concludes that the U.S. federal government is severely mismanaging its electronic records. Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW, said, “The law requires the government to preserve federal records, which ultimately belong not to any single administration, but to the American people. These records, which often document serious policy matters, are being lost to future generations who might learn from them.” Sloan continued, “In addition, those like CREW, who seek records from the government under the Freedom of Information Act or other statutes clearly are being deprived of those records, not necessarily due to malice, but rather incompetence.”