2021-2022 finanicial year report of legal services expenditure for the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman
Dear Attorney-General's Department,
Paragraph 11.1(ba) of the Legal Services Directions 2017 (Cth) provides:
The accountable authority of a non‑corporate Commonwealth entity is responsible for ensuring that the entity’s legal services purchasing, including expenditure, is appropriately recorded and monitored and that, by 30 October each year, the entity makes publicly available records of its legal services expenditure for the previous financial year.
Paragraph 11.1(da) of the Legal Services Directions 2017 (Cth) provides:
The accountable authority of a non‑corporate Commonwealth entity is responsible for ensuring that the entity reports to OLSC about the legal services expenditure and legal work of the entity, using a template approved by OLSC that specifies the matters to be reported, within 60 days after the end of each financial year.
The accountable authority of the listed entity known as the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman is the Commonwealth Ombudsman, Mr Iain Anderson (Ombudsman Act 1976 (Cth), s 4A(c)).
As at 3 February 2022, the Commonwealth Ombudsman has failed to make publicly available the records of the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s legal services expenditures for the 2021-2022 financial year on the website of the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman. All that is available, as at 3 February 2022, is a record of the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s legal services expenditures for the 2020-2021 financial year: see www.ombudsman.gov.au/about/accountabilit....
Under the FOI Act I request access to the report provided by the Commonwealth Ombudsman to the OLSC under paragraph 11.1(da) of the Legal Services Directions 2017 (Cth) about the legal services expenditure and legal work of the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman, particularly because there is no publicly accessible record of the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s legal services expenditures on the website of the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman for the 2021-2022 financial year.
Please provide documents to me by return email.
Yours faithfully,
Stephen
Your email has been received by the Freedom of Information and Privacy
Section of the Attorney-General's Department. Please note that we will
only action and respond to FOI requests and other matters relating to the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act). For information on how to
make an FOI request please refer to the FOI page on the department's
website at:
[1]https://www.ag.gov.au/rights-and-protect....
If your email relates to the FOI Act, we will contact you shortly to
acknowledge and/or respond to your request. Please do not send duplicate
emails as this may cause delays in response time-frames.
For matters not relating to the Freedom of Information Act 1982, please
refer to the ‘Contact us' page on the department's website at:
[2]https://www.ag.gov.au/about-us/connect-u....
If you have received this transmission in error please notify us
immediately by return e-mail and delete all copies. If this e-mail or any
attachments have been sent to you in error, that error does not constitute
waiver of any confidentiality, privilege or copyright in respect of
information in the e-mail or attachments.
References
Visible links
1. https://www.ag.gov.au/rights-and-protect...
2. https://www.ag.gov.au/about-us/connect-u...
Dear Stephen
I refer to your request to the Attorney-General's Department (the
department) under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) for access
to documents.
Your request is for:
access to the report provided by the Commonwealth Ombudsman to the OLSC
under paragraph 11.1(da) of the Legal Services Directions 2017 (Cth) about
the legal services expenditure and legal work of the Office of the
Commonwealth Ombudsman, particularly because there is no publicly
accessible record of the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s legal
services expenditures on the website of the Office of the Commonwealth
Ombudsman for the 2021-2022 financial year.
If you disagree with this interpretation of your request, please let me
know in writing as soon as possible.
The department received your request on 3 February 2023 and the 30 day
statutory period for processing your request commenced from the day after
that date. You should therefore expect a decision from us by 6 March 2023.
However, the period of 30 days may be extended if the department needs to
consult third parties or for other reasons. We will advise you if this
happens.
The department's practice is to not disclose personal information of staff
of the department and other government authorities, where that information
is not publicly known or routinely disclosed (e.g. names of junior
officers and contact information). The names of senior officers will
generally be disclosed. In addition, duplicates and incomplete email
chains within the scope of the FOI request will be excluded.
Documents previously provided by you to the department will also be
excluded, unless you clarify that you are seeking such documents under the
FOI Act.
Please note that, with some exceptions (such as personal information),
documents released under the FOI Act may later be published online on the
department's disclosure log
[1]http://www.ag.gov.au/RightsAndProtection....
If you have any questions, please contact me by telephone on (02) 6141
6666 or by email to [2][AGD request email].
Yours sincerely
Sam
Assistant Director
OFFICIAL
Dear Stephen
Freedom of Information Request FOI23/093
I refer to your request to the Attorney-General's Department (the
department) under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) for access
to documents.
The purpose of this email is to provide you with a decision in response to
that request.
Please find attached:
· decision letter, including:
o review rights,
o schedule of documents, and
· documents.
If you have any questions, please contact me by telephone on (02) 6141
6666 or by email to [1][AGD request email].
Yours sincerely
Sam
Assistant Director
Stephen left an annotation ()
Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman Legal Services Expenditure 2020-2021 (inc GST)
External ------ $222,785
Internal ------ $369,896
Total ------ $592,681
(https://www.ombudsman.gov.au/about/accou..., as at 3 February 2022)