Way to Go, US Treasury Dept!

(Click on the graphic for a larger version)
The National Security Archive has officially proclaimed the US Treasury as this year's winner of the coveted Rosemary Award.

The Rosemary Award, named after Nixon secretery Rose Mary Woods for her infamous "Rose Mary Stretch" that created the 18 minute gap in the Watergate tapes, is awarded to government agencies that really shine in the area of poor responsiveness to requests made under the Freedom of Information Act.

While the competition was fierce, the US Treasury really dug deep to produce a truly award-winning performance:

On one Archive request filed in 1997 about the Clinton administration’s certification of Mexican efforts against drug trafficking, Treasury:

(1) repeatedly asked the Archive (in 2001, 2004 and 2007) if we were still interested (Treasury has sent the Archive 74 such letters for 42 different requests in the past seven years),

(2) asked for another copy of the request since the original had been “destroyed,” (Treasury has asked for similar replacement letters for other Archive requests 42 times);

(3) finally closed the request without ever processing a document, claiming so much time had elapsed that the records had been retired to the National Archives (Treasury has asserted such claims in at least 10 of the Archive’s FOIA cases).

That's right! An astonishing ten years to not complete an information request! Now that, ladies and gentlemen, is what separates the winners from the losers.

Congratulations, US Treasury! You've done us proud!

[H/T to RawStory]