We reviewed Department political appointees' compliance with Federal laws, regulations, and Department policies regarding the use of email.
The Department had established policies that prohibit all employees from using personal email or messaging applications to conduct Department business. Under this policy, personal email and messaging may be used only under exceptional circumstances. When employees use personal email to conduct Department business, they must forward those messages to a Department account within 20 days. The Department provided training to all political appointees on the requirements of this policy. Seventy-eight percent of the political appointees we surveyed reported use of personal email and/or messages in limited circumstances for a variety of reasons, including technical problems with their government equipment and working after hours. We judgmentally selected four of these appointees and confirmed that they forwarded messages to their Department accounts. We found the Department's training could be improved to more clearly explain when use of personal email and messaging is appropriate.
The Department could improve its training to more clearly explain when the use of personal email and messaging is appropriate. It could also improve its written policy on records management by updating it to reflect all statutory requirements, and it could improve its FOIA procedures by requiring that affected employees search for responsive email and confirm that they completed the search.