Office fitting costings for Senator the Hon James McGrath
Dear Department of Parliamentary Services,
Could you please provide the office costings of Senator the Hon James McGrath.
Please include his supplies, wall fixtures and all fit outs/changes at his Canberra office from July 1st 2017 to July 1st 2018, as well as any freight shipping costs of items associated with this.
If you could please itemise the costings to monthly would be appreciated
Thank you
Yours faithfully,
Mike.
Dear Department of Parliamentary Services,
I requested a FOI for office fitting costing for senator James McGrath,
By law, the authority should normally have responded promptly and no later than yesterday 18th March 2020.
Could you please advise why this wasn't done and i ask that this be actioned as soon as possible
Yours faithfully,
Mike
OFFICIAL
Dear Mike
Thank you for your email regarding your information request.
The Department of Parliamentary Services (DPS) is currently processing your request and will respond to your request in due course.
Please note that under section 68A of the Parliamentary Services Act 1999, DPS is not subject to the operation of the Freedom of Information Act 1982. However, we are processing your request under DPS' internal information requests policy.
Regards,
DPS Information Requests
OFFICIAL
Dear Mike
Thank you for your email dated 17 February 2020, requesting the
information:
Could you please provide the office costings of Senator the Hon James
McGrath.
Please include his supplies, wall fixtures and all fit outs/changes at his
Canberra office from July 1st 2017 to July 1st 2018, as well as any
freight shipping costs of items associated with this.
If you could please itemise the costings to monthly would be appreciated
We apologise for the delay in responding to your request.
Under section 68A of the Parliamentary Service Act 1999, the Department of
Parliamentary Services (DPS) is not subject to the Freedom of Information
Act 1982 (Cth) (FOI Act). DPS has implemented the DPS Information Requests
Policy (the Policy) to allow public access to administrative documents
held by DPS, subject to certain limitations.
DPS Policy on Information Requests can be found at:
[1]http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/P...
The decision maker has considered your request and conducted a search of
the requested information. The Department of Parliamentary Services do not
hold relevant documents in relation to fit out costs of the relevant
suite.
Accordingly, DPS will take no further action in relation to this request.
Regards
DPS Information Requests
References
Visible links
1. http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/P...
Dear Department of Parliamentary Services,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of Department of Parliamentary Services's handling of my FOI request 'Office fitting costings for Senator the Hon James McGrath'.
"The decision maker has considered your request and conducted a search of
the requested information. The Department of Parliamentary Services do not
hold relevant documents in relation to fit out costs of the relevant
suite."
I would like an investigation into the response above please, as i find it very difficult to believe that no information is held on this type of job requests. Given that there would be purchase or costing transactions on either the parliamentary purchasing card, or on ROMAN where the vendor contracted to do the job request is listed on. I am not happy with this response and cant help but feel you are just using technical excuses to not publish these results because you know that the public servant James McCrath used tax payers money to mount his trophy animal heads in his government office in Canberra... at TAX PAYERS expense, please see link below.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/cameronwilson/j...
https://twitter.com/samanthamaiden/statu...
James McGrath openly flaunted this on his social media account and used tax payers money to mount these in the office.
Working in the public service incurs a digital or paper trail of all transactions, and anything that needs to be done in a office etc needs a job request and is all documented digitally or with paper. As a public servant you CANT just alter a office or decorate it by yourself... so given all this information.. I AGAIN request that the information i asked for be provided please,as i would like to know how much tax payers spent to have these animal heads put on a wall and how animal heads are related to parliamentary duty costs.
If this request is again denied then i would like you to tell me why we have a Right to know request system when we really dont. All monies spent on government services is from the tax payer, as a tax payer we have the right to know what our money is being spent on and all public servants should be accountable...
I would also like clarification why i didn't get an email to notify me that you had responded on may 21st, i received emails notifying me of your previous responses dated march 19th but nothing to indicate of the may 21st one, hence why i am only just replying now.
Regards
Mike
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/o...
Yours faithfully,
Mike
OFFICIAL
Good afternoon Mike
Information Request (DPS2020-002) - Notice of Decision of Internal Review
I refer to your request of 5 September 2020, seeking an internal review of
the Department of Parliamentary Services’ (DPS) decision (Original
Decision) dated 21 May 2020.
Under section 68A of the Parliamentary Service Act 1999 (Cth), DPS is not
subject to the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth). DPS has implemented
the DPS Information Request Policy (Policy) to allow public access to
administrative documents held by DPS, subject to certain limitations. The
Original Decision was made under the Policy. The Policy can be found at:
[1]http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/P....
The Original Decision refused access on the basis that DPS did not hold
relevant documents in relation to fit out costs of the relevant suite.
In your internal review request you stated that you were not notified of
the Original Decision and sought clarification as to why not. I can
confirm that the Original Decision was sent to your supplied email address
[2][FOI #6162 email] on 21 May 2020 and DPS did
not receive a bounce back email.
Under section 31 of the Policy, you are required to make an internal
review request within 30 calendar days of being notified of the Original
Decision. DPS notified you of the decision on 21 May 2020, which means
your internal review request was out of time. Despite the request being
out of time, in this instance, I have decided to accept your internal
review request.
Authorised decision maker
I am authorised to make this decision in accordance with arrangements
approved by the Secretary of DPS, under section 25 of the Policy.
Internal Review Decision
I have decided to affirm the Original Decision, on the basis that DPS does
not hold documents within the scope of your request.
Reasons
In making the decision, I have had regard to:
o the scope of your information request
o your request for an internal review
o relevant provisions of the Policy, and
o searches for any relevant documents held within DPS.
In coming to my decision, I have:
o consulted with the relevant business areas within DPS. I have been
advised that DPS does not hold any documents within the scope of your
request, and
o ensured that thorough searches were undertaken of relevant files and
DPS systems where any such documents are likely to have been recorded
or retained.
As a result of the searches and consultations, I am satisfied that all
reasonable steps have been taken to find any documents that may fall
within the scope of your request. As no such documents exist, I have
decided to refuse your request. As the scope of your request is related to
alteration and decoration of Senator McGrath’s suite, you may wish to
direct your request to the Department of the Senate.
Regards
Liz Luchetti
Liz Luchetti
Assistant Secretary| Corporate Operations Branch
Department of Parliamentary Services
T: 02 6277 8635 | M: 0408 786 322 | E: [3][email address]
Parliament House | PO Box 6000 | Canberra ACT 2600
[4]Department of Parliamentary Services
References
Visible links
1. http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/P...
2. mailto:[FOI #6162 email]
3. mailto:[email address]
4. http://aph.gov.au/dps/sl