Justice Department wins Rosemary Award for worst open government performance in 2011
(National Security Archive) “The U.S. Department of Justice has won the infamous Rosemary Award for worst open government performance over the past year, according to the citation posted on the Web today by the National Security Archive (www.nsarchive.org). The award is named after President Nixon’s secretary, Rose Mary Woods, who erased 18 1/2 minutes of a crucial Watergate tape.
“The Rosemary Award citation includes a multi-count indictment of Justice’s transparency performance in 2011…
” “Justice edged out a crowded field of contending agencies and career officials who seem in practical rebellion against President Obama’s open-government orders,” commented Archive director Tom Blanton. “Justice’s leading role as the government’s lawyer signals every bureaucrat they don’t have to stretch as much as Rose Mary Woods to cover up the government’s business.”
Rose Mary Woods, for whom the award is named, in photo on National Security Archive site.
Finalists for the award included the CIA; Department of Homeland Security; the U.S. Central Command; and U.S. Agency for International Development.
Last year’s Rosie went to the Federal Chief Information Officers’ Council, for ” ‘lifetime failure’ to address the crisis in government e-mail preservation.”