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YELLOW SHEET Office of the State Auditor of Missouri |
April 17, 2001
Report No. 2001-33
Inadequate Sunshine Law policies exist for
more than half the state agencies, boards and commissions, which can lead to
non-compliance
This
audit examined how well Missouri�s nearly 200 state agencies, boards and commissions
comply with public records requests under Sunshine Law provisions.� The audit reviewed the timeliness of
processing a request; the reasonableness of denying a request and the fees
charged for such requests.� The
following highlights the findings:
Record request fees vary widely, often more than market rate
Charges to obtain a 10-page document requiring a
15-minute search can range from free to $20 depending on which agency handles
the request.� Audit tests showed that 54
percent of the entities surveyed charged more than the 10 cents per page market
rate for duplicating public records.� In
addition, 92 percent of these entities charging over the market rate had no
detailed reasons for the high charges.�
(See page 11)
Nearly half the entities surveyed did not
comply with record requests
About 44 percent of the governmental entities
surveyed either did not respond, responded untimely or improperly denied a
request.� Of the 9 percent that did not
respond at all, many entity officials said the request never arrived even
though we had a signed receipt from the mailing.�
Three entities refused to provide the requested
records unless the citizen explained why they want the information, which is
not required by the Sunshine Law.� One
agency�s attorney offered this reason to deny: �It will be necessary for you to
be more specific as to what you need and for what purpose before we can comply��� (See page 3)
Majority of the entities responded on time
Audit tests showed that 55 percent of the entities
surveyed responded within the 3-day requirement of the Sunshine Law.� Of those that did not respond on time, the
longest delay was 43 business days, while the majority of the other untimely
responders were one to three days late. (See page 4)
Written policies do not exist or are not
clear
About 65 percent of the written policies of the
Sunshine Law reviewed in this audit were not clear or reasonable.� About 18 percent of these entities had no
written policy.� About 45 percent of
these entities had unclear policies that did not identify a custodian of
records or state 3-day response time requirement.� (See page 6)
At least three policies were not written in the �spirit� of the Sunshine Law, including Northwest Missouri State University that indicated top university officials were not �governmental bodies� and were outside the realm of the law. (See page 7)
