Number of clients referred to, and managed by, the Client Liaison Unit
Verity Pane made this Freedom of Information request to Department of Veterans' Affairs
This request has been closed to new correspondence from the public body. Contact us if you think it ought be re-opened.
Dear Department of Veterans' Affairs,
Under s 17 of the FOI Act, I seek DVA to compile and create a document (to be disclosed here) detailing the following information for the last five financial years (as well as the current financial year to date):
Column A - Financial Year (FY17/18 (to date), FY16/17, FY15/16, FY14/15, FY13/14, FY12/13)
Column B - Number of Clients Referred during that period
Column C - Number of Clients Managed by CLU during that period
I understand DVA already has this information to hand, given such statistics have for earlier years been reported in ANAO reports etc.
Yours faithfully,
Verity Pane
Dear Verity Pane
Freedom of Information Request: FOI 21147
I refer to your request for access to documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act). I have taken your request to be for:
1. The number of clients referred [to the Client Liaison Unit] from 1 July 2012 to present, by financial year.
2. The number of clients managed by the Client Liaison Unit from 1 July 2012 to present.
We received your request on 1 March 2018 and the 30 day statutory period for processing your request commenced from the day after that date. You should therefore expect a decision by 2 April 2018. The period of 30 days may be extended if we need to consult third parties, impose a charge or for other reasons. We will advise you if this happens.
You will be notified of any charges in relation to your request as soon as possible, before we process any requested documents or impose a final charge.
We will contact you using the email address you have provided.
If you have any questions, please contact me using the following details:
Telephone: (02) 6289 6581
Post: GPO Box 9998 CANBERRA ACT 2601
Facsimile: (02) 6289 6337
Email: [email address]
Yours sincerely
Alexander Gent
Legal Officer
Information Law
Legal Services & Assurance Branch
Department of Veterans’ Affairs | www.dva.gov.au
ph (02) 6289 6581 | ext 616581 | e [email address]
Dear Verity Pane
Please see attached a notice in respect of charges payable in this matter.
Kind regards,
Alexander Gent
Legal Officer
Information Law
Legal Services & Assurance Branch
Department of Veterans’ Affairs | www.dva.gov.au
ph (02) 6289 6581 | ext 616581 | e [email address]
Dear Alexander Gent,
I have reviewed your preliminary assessment of charges decision, which demands payment of $262.50, but which fails to identify a reasonable basis to justify the claim that 17 hours of search and retrieval time is required, especially when DVA already collects and maintains statistics (which have been reported previously) on CLU numbers.
Can you please provide the basis for justifying the claim of 17 hours search and retrieval time, and explain why if DVA already collects these statistics, such an excessive amount of time has been estimated for retrieval.
Yours sincerely,
Verity Pane
Dear Verity Pane
To identify the material within the scope of your request, a cross-reference of emails in Client Liaison Unit records with records in the containers for relevant clients would be required to identify that the client was referred, the date of the referral and the outcome of the referral. A search of the Department's case management system would also be required to ensure that searches covered all possible data locations.
The estimate of time is based on searching emails and identifying referrals at the rate of 10 minutes for each month of the period requested across the CLU and client containers (10 minutes * 69 months from July 2012 to March 2018 = 11.5 hours), and interrogating the case management system at the average rate of 20 minutes per financial year (20 minutes * 6 financial years = 2 hours).
A further 1.5 hours is estimated to identify duplicate referrals and calculate the number of clients managed by the CLU on the first of each month from 1 July 2012 to present.
Preparation of the section 17 document is estimated to take 30 minutes. This incorporates the filling and checking of all cells and the formatting of the document itself.
Yours sincerely
Alexander Gent
Legal Officer
Information Law
Legal Services & Assurance Branch
Department of Veterans’ Affairs | www.dva.gov.au
ph (02) 6289 6581 | ext 616581 | e [email address]
Dear Alexander Gent,
Thank you for providing some supporting information for your estimate, but you did not address the question asked, which is that there is evidence that DVA already collects these statistics for both internal and external reporting (as evidenced by their reporting in ANAO report publications and in response to Questions On Notice in Senate Estimates).
If DVA already collects these statistics, it would be an abuse to estimates charges as if you didn’t.
Can you please confirm whether DVA has collected such statistics previously, or is it as you seem to try to be passing off, that DVA has never collected statistics on the number of people referred to the CLU at any time.
It would be best to avoid ambiguity- especially if this is to progress to formal review.
Yours sincerely,
Verity Pane
Dear Alexander Gent,
More than a fortnight has passed without acknowledgement or response, nor has any reason been given for this high handed conduct, which is contrary to the requirements here.
I would encourage you to act responsibly and attend to your correspondence.
Yours sincerely,
Verity Pane
Dear Alexander Gent,
A reminder that you have still yet to provide a response, despite this being outstanding for a number of months now. It’s a simple question, and the onus of proof is on the agency to demonstrate any estimate is reasonable.
Yours sincerely,
Verity Pane
Dear Department of Veterans' Affairs,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of Department of Veterans' Affairs's handling of my FOI request 'Number of clients referred to, and managed by, the Client Liaison Unit'.
Despite following up month after month, DVA has refused to provide suitable substantiation of its back of the envelope estimates, refusing to provide transparency.
Prior to putting in for IC Review, internal review is sought.
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/n...
Yours faithfully,
Verity Pane
Dear Verity Pane,
Acknowledgement of FOI Internal Review Request – IR 23919
I refer to your request for internal review by our Department under the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act). The Department received your
request on 14 August 2018. In accordance with section 54C(3) of the FOI
Act, the Department has 30 days to process your request. As such, a
decision on your request is due by 13 September 2018.
If you have any questions about your FOI matter, please contact us using
the following details:
Post: Legal Services & Assurance, Department of Veterans’ Affairs
GPO Box 9998, Canberra ACT 2601
Facsimile: (02) 6289 6337
Email: [1][email address]
In all communications please quote reference IR 23919.
Kind Regards,
Information Law | Legal Services & Assurance Branch
Department of Veterans’ Affairs
GPO Box 9998 Canberra ACT 2601
E: [2][email address]
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Dear Information.Law,
On 20th August you wrote:
I refer to your request for internal review by our Department under the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act). The Department received your
request on 14 August 2018. In accordance with section 54C(3) of the FOI
Act, the Department has 30 days to process your request. As such, a
decision on your request is due by 13 September 2018.
It is now the 5 October 2018, three weeks past the date DVA said it would provide an internal review decision.
While I note your agency has a corrupt and high handed approach to its FOI obligation, full of malicious intent, any person would still expect you to adhere to your own nominated deadlines for decisions.
Just another example of how DVA continues to demonstrate it is getting worse, not better, and it’s ‘veteran centric’ PR puff is exactly that, sham marketing, and you are still arrogant, unethical toads.
Yours sincerely,
Verity Pane
Geoff Shafran left an annotation ()
I have read the proposed Alexander Gent in regards disagree with the Department’s decision to impose a charge in relation to this FOI request and would suggest this is not in the public interest given the departments Unreasonable Complaint Conduct Policy was not available for public viewing until Feb 2108.
In addition to the information requested by Verity Pane I request additional columns be added to state the number of clients that had reviews conducted at 3,6 and 12 months after the service change or restriction was initially imposed or continued/upheld. (See 10.1 of the UCC Policy).
And the table also indicate how many were released from CLU restrictions at 3,6 and 12 months.
An further column be added to state the numbers of veterans that have had wrongful CLU restriction imposed on them.