Press

PRESS

CREW Dismisses Lawsuit Based on NARA’s Multi-Phase Plan for Improving Management of Government Email

Washington, D.C. - Today CREW filed a notice of voluntary dismissal in CREW v. Nat’l Archives & Records Admin., CREW’s lawsuit challenging NARA’s failure to conduct inspections of agency compliance with record keeping requirements. CREW based its suit, in part, on General Accounting Office (GAO) reports documenting NARA’s failure to monitor agency performance of records management programs and practices on an ongoing basis and GAO’s repeated admonition that the more targeted assistance NARA was employing was no substitute for the systematic inspections and evaluations the Federal Records Act (FRA) requires.

CREW’s own research, set forth in an April 2008 report, Record Chaos: The Deplorable State of Electronic Record Keeping in the Federal Government, revealed the multiple ways in which the federal government has fallen woefully behind in managing its electronic records, with blame falling squarely on NARA.

After filing its lawsuit, CREW met with NARA officials, who outlined for CREW NARA’s multi-phase plan for improving agency management of email records. The plan, which NARA is in the process of implementing, includes information-gathering from agency self-assessments followed by agency inspections in accordance with regulations NARA proposed last year and expects to be finalized in the next month or so. CREW agreed to dismiss its lawsuit, with leave to refile as necessary, in order to give NARA time to implement its plan and to evaluate its effectiveness. Not only will CREW be monitoring NARA’s activities, but CREW – along with other open government groups – has asked to meet with NARA on a periodic basis. CREW looks forward to working cooperatively with NARA to tackle the enormous challenges electronic record keeping raises for the federal government.

Read the meeting materials and CREW's notice of voluntary dismissal in the Related Documents section on the right.