GAO sees risk in classification

The Justice Department’s classification program, which determines what information could reasonably be expected to damage the country’s national security if disclosed publicly, is at risk because of a lack of adequate staffing, according to a government report.

In a 50-page report yesterday, the Government Accountability Office said the department’s classification-management program needs to assess its “optimum” manpower requirements, develop a strategy to meet them, and then implement internal controls “to ensure proper use of sensitive but unclassified designations.”

“The September 11 attacks showed that agencies must balance the need to protect and share sensitive information to prevent future attacks,” the report says. “Agencies classify this information or designate it sensitive but unclassified to protect and limit access to it.”

But, according to the GAO, the department is at risk because it has not addressed the problem of insufficient staffing to effectively manage and oversee the program, noting it has one staff member to cover departmentwide training issues and three staffers to oversee 3,500 locations under the program.

“According to the program manager, with these resources, the security office was reacting to classification issues that arose rather than being proactive to prevent them,” the GAO said.

Staffing increases for the Justice Department program were recommended by the National Archives’ Information Security Oversight Office, which reviewed security procedures in July 2004 and April 2005. GAO was asked this year to see how well the department and the FBI had responded to the request.

The GAO said Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales should determine what staffing he needs to carry out the responsibilities of the department’s classification-management program and devise a strategy to make those resources available and use them effectively.

Justice Department officials, according to the GAO report, said it “is trying to address its resources constraints, a long-standing problem that GAO identified as early as 1993, by requesting additional funds from an administrative account in fiscal year 2007.”

The GAO noted that all records of a permanent historical value older than 25 years that contain classified national security information automatically will be declassified on Dec. 31, and each year thereafter, and “may be available for public disclosure, unless an agency head or senior agency official determines that these records fall within an exemption that permits continued classification.”

It said the documents that could be released without proper classification could “seriously impair relations between the United States and a foreign government; undermine diplomatic activities of the United States; identify a human intelligence source; or violate a statute, treaty or international agreement.”

But, it said, the problem continues because the department’s security office did not receive additional resources, as requested, nor has Justice reallocated resources from other activities to that office.