President Obama issued a number of memoranda last week designed to increase government transparency and allow for greater disclosure of information held by executive agencies. In what seems to be a clear departure from Bush administration policies, Obama has called for the creation of an “Open Government Directive” by the Director of the Office of Management and Business.

According to President Obama, “Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.” Amongst the points made in his memoranda were that Government should be more transperant, participatory, and collaborative.

Aside from the apparent political significance of this memoranda, there is a definite practical effect. To date, a number of offices within various executive agencies do not provide readily available information on their policies, procedures, and opinions. For example, while the U.S. Department fo Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) provides fact sheets on different sanctions programs, they do not offer advisory opinions, or administrative decisions on designation determinations. Nor do they offer sample petitions for removal from the Specially Designated Nationals (“SDN”) List. This makes it extremely difficult for individuals to defend themselves against OFAC’s actions, or to merely understand what action has been taken against them. OFAC’s lack of transperancy is indicative of a more wide scale problem.

I, for one, really appreciate the strides towards open government being made by President Obama. Maybe it because I’m an attorney that represents individuals harmed by federal agency actions, but I feel that conducting federal business out in the open legitimizes their activities. Whether that is true or not is a matter of opinion. One thing is for sure however, more transperancy will lead to an increase in the appeal and reconsideration of agency actions, which in turn will provide a fairer federal government and perhaps even reverse the course of growing distrust in the government.

To view the memoranda issued by President Obama for yourself click here and here.

The author of this blog is Erich C. Ferrari, an attorney in Washington, DC, who specializes in Sanctions Law, Administrative Law and White Collar Criminal Defense. If you have any questions please email info@ferrari-legal.com