SIGAR shall charge reasonable fees that recoup the full allowable direct costs it incurs in responding to FOIA requests. SIGAR will provide an estimated amount of fees, including a breakdown of the fees for search, review, and/or duplication. SIGAR may assess charges for time spent searching for records even if SIGAR is unable to locate the records or if the records are located and determined to be exempt from disclosure. In general, SIGAR shall apply the following fee schedule, subject to §§ 9301.9 through 9301.11:

(a) Manual searches. Time devoted to manual searches shall be charged on the basis of the salary of the employee(s) conducting the search (basic hourly rate(s) of pay for the employee).

(b) Electronic searches. Fees shall reflect the direct cost of conducting the search. This will include the cost of operating the central processing unit for that portion of operating time that is directly attributable to searching for and printing records responsive to the FOIA request and operator/programmer salary attributable to the search.

(c) Record reviews. Time devoted to reviewing records shall be charged on the same basis as under paragraph (a) of this section, but shall only be applicable to the initial review of records located in response to commercial use requests.

(d) Duplication. Fees for copying paper records or for printing electronic records shall be assessed at a rate of $.10 per page. For other types of copies such as disks or audio visual tapes, SIGAR shall charge the direct cost of producing the document(s). If duplication charges are expected to exceed $25, the FOIA Officer shall notify the requester, unless the requester has indicated in advance a willingness to pay fees as high as those anticipated.

(e) Advance payments required. (1) The FOIA Officer may require a requester to make an advance deposit of up to the amount of the entire anticipated fee before the FOIA Officer begins to process the request if:

(i) The FOIA Officer estimates that the fee will exceed $250; or

(ii) [Reserved]

(2) The requester has previously failed to pay a fee in a timely fashion.

(i) [Reserved]

(ii) When the FOIA Officer requires a requester to make an advance payment, the 20-day period described in § 9301.6(c)(1) shall begin when the FOIA Officer receives the payment.

(f) No assessment of fee. SIGAR shall not charge a fee to any requester if:

(1) The cost of collecting the fee would be equal to or greater than the fee itself; or

(2) SIGAR fails to comply with any time limit under the FOIA for responding to a request for records where no unusual or exceptional circumstances apply.

(3) SIGAR determines that unusual circumstances apply to the processing of a request, provides timely notice to the requester, and delay is excused for an additional ten days, but SIGAR still fails to respond within the timeframe established by the additional delay. This provision applies only to search fees or duplication fees for educational institution, non-commercial scientific institution, or representative of the news media requesters. However, the following exceptions shall apply:

(i) Notwithstanding § 9301.8(f)(3), if SIGAR determines that unusual circumstances apply and that more than 5000 pages are necessary to respond to the request, SIGAR may continue to charge search fees, or duplication fees for requesters in preferred status, for as long as necessary, after timely written notice has been made to the requester and SIGAR has discussed with the requester how the requester could effectively limit the scope of the request via written mail, electronic mail, or telephone, or made three good-faith attempts to do so.