Office of Information Practices

The state Office of Information Practices (OIP) has delayed completing its summary of FY 2014 annual results of the UIPA Record Request Log in order to give agencies the opportunity to correct obvious mistakes in how they are entering data in their Logs.  OIP has been reviewing each agency’s Log and informing the departments of reporting errors, the most common one being that agencies are not entering the waivers of search, review, and segregation (SRS) fees.

Except for personal record requests (for which no SRS fees can be charged), fee waivers should be entered in all cases when the agency engages in SRS activities.  Unless the request meets the $60 public interest waiver requirement, the first $30 of SRS fees must be waived and “-30” should be entered in Column AB of the UIPA Record Request Log. If the request meets the public interest waiver requirement, then the first $60 of SRS fees must be waived and “-60” should be entered in Column AC.  Except when the column is highlighted in purple because it is a personal records request, a fee waiver in either Column AB or Column AC should be entered in all cases when the agency engages in SRS activities, whether or not the agency actually charges or collects the money from the requester.  If fee waivers are properly entered by the agency, then the total number of $30 and $60 fee waivers should at least equal the total number of requests that are granted in full or in part; the number of fee waivers might be higher because of requests that the agency worked on, but were withdrawn or abandoned by the requester without payment.

Before agencies upload their semiannual reports to the Master UIPA Record Request Log on data.hawaii.gov for the period covering July 1, 2014 through December 31, 2014, please ensure that fee waivers are being properly entered.  Training on how to enter data or to upload agency totals from the Log can be found on OIP’s training page at oip.hawaii.gov.  If you have any questions, please contact Michael Little at 586-1400 or [email protected].