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Consistently meet all of the reporting requirements. |
For its part, OMB has submitted its reports to Congress annually, as required by the act. However, it has not consistently
met all of the reporting requirements. Specifically, while its reports have included summaries of the information reported
by agencies and information on the operations of the E-Gov Fund, they have not always addressed all goals and provisions of
the act. For example, from fiscal year 2005 to fiscal year 2010, OMB did not report on agencies' progress in promoting the
use of electronic signatures. Further, the agencies were not required by OMB to report on how they enhanced public participation
by electronic means for development and issuance of regulations from fiscal year 2006 to fiscal year 2009, but were required
to describe them from fiscal year 2010 to fiscal year 2011. Moreover, since 2010, OMB did not fully address the accessibility,
usability, and preservation of government information, including the organization and categorization of such information.
In discussing this matter, OMB officials said their guidance does not always require agencies to include all the provisions
required by the act, and, accordingly, OMB does not fully report on these areas. Further, OMB officials stated that the reporting
guidance they issue each year is determined by the administration's priorities. For example, OMB has, in certain years, required
the agencies to report on other accomplishments outside of the act, such as progress related to the administration's Open
Government initiative. However, with the exception of fiscal year 2005, OMB did not include in its annual report to Congress
any information to explain which particular provisions of the act were not being addressed and why. In its fiscal year 2005
E-Gov reporting instructions, OMB stated that to reduce the burden on agencies, it did not require agencies to report on certain
provisions of the act related to privacy, since it could obtain the information through other means, such as agencies' annual
reporting on compliance with the Federal Information Security Management Act, which includes privacy reporting. Yet, OMB did
not include such an explanation of its reporting for other years. Excluding such information limits the transparency of the
E-Gov reports and, consequently, their value in informing Congress about actions taken to implement the act.
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