Delegation's Schedule
Dear Australian Customs and Border Protection Service,
Under the FOI provisions I request that you provide me with a copy of any delegations schedule/s in use at Customs.
Specifically, I am seeking any schedules wherein decision makers exercise authority under the Customs Act or other pieces of legislation, excluding financial and HR delegations schedules.
If this information is already available on your webiste or elsewhere, please point me to where I can find these schedules.
Yours faithfully,
Red
Thank you for your email. This is an automated response to advise you that your email has been received by the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service's FOI Coordinator.
If you wish to lodge a request for access to documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act), please ensure that your request is in writing, states that it is an application for the purposes of the FOI Act and provides sufficient detail describing the documents you wish to access.
Further details on how to make a valid FOI request can be found on the agency’s website at: http://www.customs.gov.au/foi/requesting....
The FOI Coordinator will acknowledge your request within 14 days.
Good afternoon Red
I refer to your email below dated 29 October 2014, in which you have
requested access to documents held by the Australian Customs and Border
Protection Service (ACBPS) under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI
Act).
ACBPS does not maintain a single schedule of delegations in use by the
Service. Our delegations are comprised of individual Instruments of
Delegation. Whilst some of those instruments may have a schedule annexed
with a number of officer’s listed in relation to that particular
delegation, there is not one centralised schedule of all delegations in
existence.
As such, the number of documents that would fall within the scope of your
request as it currently stands would be extensive, and if the scope is not
modified, the work required to process the request would substantially and
unreasonably divert the resources of ACBPS from its other operations.
In order that we may discuss with you the scope of your request, I wonder
whether you could please contact us on the details below, so that we may
assist you in submitting a request that can be considered by ACBPS.
With kind regards
FOI Coordinator
P| 02 6275 5621
E| [1][email address]
Dear FOI Coordinator,
Essentially what I really want to know is whether your
delegation schedules are based on position numbers or levels. That is, do individual staff hold delegations because of their position,or are delegations broadly applied to staff at level.Do you have even one Delegation Instrument that answers this question please?
Yours sincerely,
Red
Thank you for your email. This is an automated response to advise you that your email has been received by the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service's FOI Coordinator.
If you wish to lodge a request for access to documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act), please ensure that your request is in writing, states that it is an application for the purposes of the FOI Act and provides sufficient detail describing the documents you wish to access.
Further details on how to make a valid FOI request can be found on the agency’s website at: http://www.customs.gov.au/foi/requesting....
The FOI Coordinator will acknowledge your request within 14 days.
Good afternoon Red
Thank you for your email of 5 November clarifying the nature of the information you are seeking access to.
I note that you have, in essence, asked the question "Are ACBPS delegation schedules based on position numbers or levels"?
All information held by ACBPS is protected information within the meaning of s 16(1A) of the Customs Administration Act 1985, and can only be disclosed where particular exceptions apply. As there is no relevant exception to allow me to answer your request, I am not able to provide you with an answer to the question you have submitted in its current form at the present time. However, I am able to disclose information to you under FOI as one of the relevant exemptions is where it is required or authorised by another law. As such, in order for any information to be released to you, it will be necessary for you to request it under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act).
In order for a request for access to documents under the FOI Act to be valid, it must provide such information concerning the document as is reasonably necessary to enable a responsible officer of the agency to identify it. As your request is currently framed as a question and does not identify a particular document it does not currently satisfy this requirement (section 15(2)(b) of the FOI Act).
ACBPS does have a document which sets out the process for making delegations and authorisations under heads of power under the Customs Act and other associated legislation, which outlines the general principles, sources of power, and the ways in which an Office of ACBPS can be delegated or authorised to exercise powers and functions.
You may therefore wish to consider amending the scope of your request to be for the following document:
"ACBPS Practice Statement PS 2011/03 published on 2 March 2011".
Could you please confirm whether you agree to modify the scope of your request as set out above?
Once you have confirmed the scope of your request, ACBPS will be able to consider the release of the document to you.
With kind regards
FOI Coordinator
P| 02 6275 5621
E| [email address]
Dear FOI Coordinator,
On the basis of your guidance, I amend the scope of my FOI request to be for the following document:
"ACBPS Practice Statement PS 2011/03 published on 2 March 2011".
Yours sincerely,
Red
Thank you for your email. This is an automated response to advise you that your email has been received by the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service's FOI Coordinator.
If you wish to lodge a request for access to documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act), please ensure that your request is in writing, states that it is an application for the purposes of the FOI Act and provides sufficient detail describing the documents you wish to access.
Further details on how to make a valid FOI request can be found on the agency’s website at: http://www.customs.gov.au/foi/requesting....
The FOI Coordinator will acknowledge your request within 14 days.
Good morning Red
Thank you for your email of 22 November 2014, confirming your agreement to
the suggested revised scope for your request. The ACBPS FOI decision
maker will now proceed to make a decision on the release of that document
to you.
That decision is currently due on or before 28 November 2014.
In order for the Service to complete the decision making process in
relation to the document that has been identified as falling within the
scope of your request, ACBPS will require additional time to finalise your
request.
Section 15AA of the FOI Act permits an agency to agree with an applicant
for an extension of no more than 30 days to the statutory timeframe
permitted under the FOI Act for the decision making process.
The purpose of this email is to seek your agreement to the timeframe in
this matter being extended by 30 days to complete the decision making
process and provide a well-reasoned and better managed decision. This
would result in the decision on release of documents in this matter being
due by 29 December 2014.
Whilst we are seeking the extension of 30 days, ACBPS will endeavour to
make a decision in relation to access to the documents requested as
quickly as possible, and anticipate this would not extend to the entire
additional 30 days.
Could you please respond by return email confirming your agreement to this
extension of time? ACBPS will then register the Extension of Time
agreement with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner as
required by section 15AA(b) of the FOI Act.
If you wish to discuss this matter further, please do not hesitate to
contact me on the details below.
With kind regards
FOI Coordinator
Australian Customs and Border Protection Service
P| 02 6275 5621
E| [1][email address]
References
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1. mailto:[email address]
Dear FOI Coordinator,
I agree to an extension of time until 24 December 2014.
Yours sincerely,
Red
Thank you for your email. This is an automated response to advise you that your email has been received by the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service's FOI Coordinator.
If you wish to lodge a request for access to documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act), please ensure that your request is in writing, states that it is an application for the purposes of the FOI Act and provides sufficient detail describing the documents you wish to access.
Further details on how to make a valid FOI request can be found on the agency’s website at: http://www.customs.gov.au/foi/requesting....
The FOI Coordinator will acknowledge your request within 14 days.
Good afternoon
Request for access to documents – Freedom of Information Act 1982
Please find attached a Notice of Decision from the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service for your information.
The document referred to in this decision is also attached for your reference.
With kind regards
FOI Coordinator
Australian Customs and Border Protection Service
P| 02 6275 5621
E| [email address]