§ 295.4 - Other definitions.

§ 295.4 Other definitions.

(a) FOIA Request. A written request for OIG records, made by any person, including a member of the public (U.S. or foreign citizen), an organization, or a business, but not including a Federal agency or a fugitive from the law that either explicitly or implicitly invokes the FOIA, 32 CFR part 285 and 32 CFR part 286, or this part.

(b) Initial Denial Authority (IDA). The official who has been granted authority to withhold records requested under the FOIA, for one or more of the nine categories of records exempt from mandatory disclosure, by the head of the OIG Component designated by the IG to administer the IG FOIA Program.

(c) Appellate Authority. The IG or his or her designee having jurisdiction for this purpose over the record.

(d) Administrative Appeal. A request by a member of the general public, made under the FOIA, asking the appellate authority of the OIG to reverse an IDA decision to withhold all or part of a requested record or an IDA decision to deny a request for waiver or reduction of fees.

(e) Public Interest. Public interest is official information that sheds light on an agency's performance of its statutory duties because the information falls within the statutory purpose of the FOIA of informing citizens about what their Government is doing. That statutory purpose, however, is not fostered by disclosure of information about private citizens that is accumulated in various governmental files that reveals little or nothing about an agency's or official's own conduct.