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Federal Web sites short on transparency

WASHINGTON, March 12 (UPI) -- Only 20 percent of 149 U.S. government agencies reviewed posted all required public records on their Internet Web sites, a study released in Washington said.

The non-government National Security Archive, a research institute and library located at George Washington University, found that 80 percent of the federal agencies surveyed fell short of meeting a 10-year-old mandate of the Freedom of Information Act to make public data available online, The Washington Post reported.

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Only 6 percent of the agencies told the public how to request information that does not appear on a Web site. Nearly 70 percent of the Web sites had no index of major records -- making them practically worthless -- and just 25 percent of the sites offered a form to permit online submission for FOIA information.

NASA posted the most public information while the Pentagon's sites were among those least compliant in offering public information online, the report said.

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