"I'm trying to put together a very transparent organization," he told Press-Register editors and reporters during a July 2006 visit to Mobile. "I didn't see that at FEMA in the past."

In a brief interview last month, Paulison said he is as "open as anyone you'll find," and pointed to measures such as letting New Orleans residents track the status of rebuilding projects in their neighborhoods via the Internet as evidence that he has followed through.

But while some credit Paulison with making a good-faith try, a variety of stumbles and skirmishes on his watch also suggest that transparency doesn't always come easily to bureaucrats used to keeping information close.

At a hearing last July, for example, members of a U.S. House of Representatives committee accused FEMA lawyers of sitting on evidence about the health risks posed by formaldehyde in travel trailers used to house hurricane evacuees in Mobile County and elsewhere on the Gulf Coast.

Four months later, Paulison's press secretary quit following the disclosure that the agency had staged a fake news conference, complete with FEMA employees posing as reporters. The agency's relationship with the media again drew attention in March after officials sought to charge a Baton Rouge newspaper almost $210,000 for records related to the formaldehyde issue.

Last year, a top official with the Government Accountability Office, a congressional watchdog agency, publicly complained that the agency's foot-dragging had added months to her inquiries into various aspects of the federal flood insurance program.