State Department employees did not receive proper training and guidance on rules requiring the preservation of emails for the official record, according to the department's inspector general.

In a report released Wednesday, the inspector general found that of the one billion emails sent in 2011, only 61,156 were preserved. That number dropped to 41,749 in 2013.

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The report did not review the email record-keeping of the secretary of State or other high-ranking officials, who use an alternate system. That includes Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonWhat Senate Republicans have said about election-year Supreme Court vacancies Bipartisan praise pours in after Ginsburg's death Trump carries on with rally, unaware of Ginsburg's death MORE, who has come under intense pressure after it was revealed she exclusively used a private email account, connected to her family’s own server, for official business during her time as secretary.

The report, conducted in early 2014, found that some employees do not retain emails because "they do not want to make the email available in searches or fear that this availability would inhibit debate about pending decisions," according to the report.

Preservation varies widely by bureau and particular embassy, depending on the number of employees and compliance. For example, in 2013, employees in Washington retained 7,440 emails, while the embassy in Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, saved only one.

The State Department introduced an easy way to preserve emails in 2009 that would allow employees to save relevant emails through Microsoft Outlook, which can be searched by other employees.

Employees are supposed to save all email messages if they describe important meetings, execution of policy, answers to congressional questions or information important to a successor, among other things.

"Department officials have noted that many emails that qualify as records are not being saved as record emails," according to the report.

— This story was updated at 2:52 p.m.