Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2023 07:28:00 +0000
Subject: Freedom of Information request - FOI requests the subject of applications for IC review - Commonwealth Ombudsman
From: Stephen <xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx>
To: OAIC - FOI <xxx@xxxx.xxx.xx>

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Dear Office of the Australian Information Commissioner,

On 20 March 2023, I applied for access to the original freedom of information requests received by the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman that are, as at 20 March 2023, the subjects of applications for Information Commissioner review (e.g. if 10 of the FOI requests that the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman has received are subjects of applications for IC review as at 20 March 2023, then please provide those 10 FOI requests): https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/foi_requests_the_subject_of_appl#outgoing-20058.

No acknowledgement of receipt was sent to me within 14 days from the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman, as is required under section 15(5)(a) of the FOI Act.

Concerned by the failure to acknowledge receipt, I sent the Commonwealth Ombudsman an email on 15 April 2023 request acknowledgement of receipt of my FOI request: https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/foi_requests_the_subject_of_appl#outgoing-20224.

Both my request and my follow-up email have been ignored.

The administrators on Right to Know suggest that “If any other public authorities or publicly owned companies are involved, then make Freedom of Information requests to them.”

I assume that you have access to these original requests since they are normally provided to you upon an IC review request being submitted.

Since my request to the Ombudsman has been ignored, I am applying to the OAIC for the documents that I requested from the Commonwealth Ombudsman.

According to the 2021-2022 legal services expenditure report submitted to the Office of Legal Service Coordination (https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/2021_2022_finanicial_year_report#incoming-29844), the internal legal services expense for the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman for the 2021-2022 financial year was $785,388. That is an increase of $415,492 on the previous financial year, in which the internal legal services expense for the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman was $369,896.

One of the reasons for the increase in internal legal expenses between the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 financial years is listed as “increasing workload particularly in Freedom of Information requests and OAIC review” in the 2021-2022 legal services expenditure report. I would like to know just what kind of FOI requests the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman is receiving that would justify a more than $400,000 increase in internal legal services expenditure in a single financial year.

Under the FOI Act I would like access to the original freedom of information requests received by the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman that are, as at 19 April 2023, the subjects of applications for Information Commissioner review (e.g. if 10 of the FOI requests that the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman has received are subjects of applications for IC review as at 19 April 2023, then please provide those 10 FOI requests).

Please provide the requested documents by return email.

Yours faithfully,

Stephen

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