Records Management: Inadequate Controls Over Various Agencies' Political
Appointee Files (Letter Report, 07/13/94, GAO/NSIAD-94-155).

GAO was requested to review the adequacy of controls over records
created and maintained on political appointees at the Departments of
State, Commerce, and the Interior; the U.S. Agency for International
Development; and the Office of the Secretary of Defense.  GAO found that
weaknesses in management and control of records at the Department of
State enabled Clinton administration political appointees at the
Department's White House Liaison Office to retrieve White House liaison
files on Bush political appointees.  Controls over White House liaison
records on political appointees at the other four agencies were also
weak. Three agencies had not identified their political appointee
records as a system of records as required by the Privacy Act. Three of
the four had not prepared disposition schedules for these records.  Two
agencies destroyed records on political appointees without specific
disposition authority, one agency gave the records to individual
appointees, and one handled the records in a manner that the final
disposition for most of them could not be determined.  There are no
governmentwide disposition standards for records relating to political
appointees, and weak controls increase the vulnerability of these
records to unauthorized searches and make it harder to determine if the
records have been improperly accessed.

--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------

 REPORTNUM:  NSIAD-94-155
     TITLE:  Records Management: Inadequate Controls Over Various 
             Agencies' Political Appointee Files
      DATE:  07/13/94
   SUBJECT:  Personnel records
             Records management
             Privacy law
             Public officials
             Presidential transition
             Confidential records
             Disclosure law
             Information disclosure
             Records disposition
             Classified records

             
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