Government watchdog says State Dept. is saving 0.0006 percent of its emails as official records

The State Department's Office of Inspector General released a report Wednesday that said officials at the department are saving just a tiny fraction of their emails as official records.

The OIG report said that of the more than 1 billion emails created at the department in 2011, only about 61,000 were archived as "record emails." That's a tiny rate of roughly 0.00006 percent of all emails created by the department.

It turns out, no one at the State Department is very good at preserving emails, according to an Inspector General report. Photo: Mark Van Scyoc/Shutterstock

And State did even worse in 2013, when just 41,000 emails were preserved.

The report raises even more questions about the department's email policies, just a day after former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she deleted every email from her personal server that she deemed to be non-government related from her time at the State Department. The rest, she said, were sent to the government, but her comments prompted many to say it shouldn't be up to her alone which emails are kept and which are thrown away.

The OIG report said the department's paltry effort to preserve its emails appears to show that officials have not been properly trained on how to use a system aimed at helping them preserve emails of record. The IG said that system was put in place in 2009, and that officials need to preserve their emails in order to ensure future officials can understand why certain actions were taken.

"Record preservation is particularly important in the Department because Foreign Service officers rotate into new positions every 2 or 3 years," the IG said. "Federal law requires departments, agencies, and their employees to create records of their more significant actions and to preserve records according to governmentwide standards."

But the OIG also said some State Department workers also seem to be purposefully avoiding making permanent records of their emails.

"Some employees do not create record emails because they do not want to make the email available in searches or fear that this availability would inhibit debate about pending decisions," it said. It found several other contributing factors as well.

"The OIG team found that several major conditions impede the use of record emails: an absence of centralized oversight; a lack of understanding and knowledge of record-keeping requirements; a reluctance to use record email because of possible consequences; a lack of understanding of SMART features; and impediments in the software that prevent easy use," it said.

The OIG reminded officials that any email that deals with "the organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, operations, or other activities of the Government" could be appropriate for preservation as a "record email."

"[E]mail messages should be saved as records if they document the formulation and execution of basic policies and actions or important meetings; if they facilitate action by agency officials and their successors in office; if they help department officials answer congressional questions; or if they protect the financial, legal, and other rights of the government or persons the government’s actions directly affect," it said.

"Every employee in the Department has the responsibility of preserving emails that should be retained as official records," it said.