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The department,
and other U.S. government agencies, had more than four years to
meet the deadline under an Aug. 24, 2012, directive that aimed
to eliminate the use of paper records as much as possible in
favor of electronic record-keeping.
That directive was part of an Obama administration effort to
update government record-keeping for the digital age and promote
accountability for official decisions by ensuring they are
properly documented and preserved for future generations.
In a report posted by the National Archives on Wednesday, the
State Department checked the "No" box in response to a question
on whether it had met the goal of managing all its email records
in an electronic format by Dec. 31, 2016.
In the report, the State Department said it had met the goal on
its main, centralized email systems accounting for the
"overwhelming majority" of its emails.
"However, the Department does have additional email systems that
require further evaluation before we will certify that all email
records are managed in an electronic format," it said, saying it
was working hard to "fully meet" the goal.
The State Department had no immediate comment on the matter.
The department's record-keeping and email archiving practices
attracted scrutiny during the 2016 presidential campaign when
the New York Times reported that Clinton had used a private
email server as secretary of state.
The Democrat's use of the server to conduct official business
throughout her 2009-2013 State Department tenure was criticized
by Republican Donald Trump, who defeated her for the presidency
in last November's election.
An internal government watchdog issued a report last year that
found Clinton broke government rules by using the private email
server for her work as America's top diplomat without approval.
The State Department's Office of the Inspector General said it
found no evidence Clinton sought permission to use a server at
her Chappaqua, New York, home to handle her work emails and it
quoted officials as saying they would have rejected her doing so
if they had been asked.
The report also found problems in department record-keeping
practices before Clinton's tenure, and it documented how slowly
the department had moved to bring record-keeping into the age of
electronic communications.
(Reporting by Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Peter Cooney)
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