OSI - board, committee and presentation materials
Dear Office of the Special Investigator,
Please provide copies of :
1. Risk audit meeting briefing papers, agenda, minutes and presentations.
2. Executive board meeting briefing papers, agenda, minutes and presentations.
3. Briefing notes for presentations, appearances, hearings, visits, meetings, lectures or similar.
Yours faithfully,
James Smith
OFFICIAL
Dear Mr Smith
I refer to your request for access to documents under the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (FOI Act). Your request was received on 8 July 2024.
You requested to access:
1. Risk audit meeting briefing papers, agenda, minutes and presentations.
2. Executive board meeting briefing papers, agenda, minutes and
presentations.
3. Briefing notes for presentations, appearances, hearings, visits,
meetings, lectures or similar.
I am writing to ask you to clarify your request by reply email by 17 July
2024. This is because:
o parts 1-2 of your request capture a large number of documents and
processing them is likely to substantially and unreasonably divert the
resources of the OSI from its other operations.
o the description of the documents sought in part 3 of your request is
such that the OSI unable to conduct reasonable searches to identify
the documents sought.
I have provided further information below for you to consider. Please note
that if you do not clarify your request on or before 17 July 2024, the OSI
may need to take steps to practically refuse it under s 24 of the FOI Act.
Parts 1-2 of your request – Volume of documents captured
Please be advised that:
o part 1 of your request captures an estimated 677 documents, comprising
in excess of 6242 pages
o part 2 of your request captures (so far) an estimated 91 documents,
comprising 1784 pages, and this does not include drafts that may also
fall within scope.
The documents caught under these parts span a period of nearly 4 years
(2021-2024) and concern a variety of topics, including corporate
governance and accountability, finance, legal and operational matters.
Please advise how you wish to clarify this part of your request – we
suggest that you:
o Limit these parts of your request to the finalised meeting agendas
and/or minutes of meetings of the OSI’s Audit and Risk Management
Committee (ARMC) and Executive Board (EB).
o Include a date range - for example, finalised meeting agendas and/or
minutes of ARMC and EB meetings created during the 2023-24 calendar
years
o Advise whether for these parts of your request you are seeking
documents that relate to a particular subject-matter or topic, or
contain certain information.
Part 3 of your request – Description of documents
Under s 15(2)(b) of the FOI Act, a valid FOI request must: provide such
information concerning the document [sought] as is reasonably necessary to
enable a responsible officer of the agency, or the Minister, to identify
it.
The description provided for this part of your request – in its current
form – is so broad that it is unclear to the OSI what briefing notes you
are seeking to access. Please withdraw this part of your request or
provide further information, such as whether you are seeking to access
briefing notes for presentations etc that:
o were given to a particular OSI staff member, such as the
Director-General
o were authored by a certain OSI work area
o relate to a particular subject-matter or topic, or contain certain
information
o are finalised rather than in draft
o were created during a certain period of time (eg 2023-24 calendar
years).
Without further information, such as that listed above, it will not be
possible for the OSI to undertake reasonable searches to identify the
documents sought under this part of your request.
Kind regards
Sarah
Information Access and Records Manager
Office of the Special Investigator
E: [1][OSI request email]
[2]cid:image007.jpg@01D70603.F616B1F0
OFFICIAL
Dear Sarah,
I revise the request as follows:
1. "Risk audit meeting briefing papers, agenda, minutes and presentations" to be amended as follows:
a. final versions of documents (i.e. no drafts are requested)
b. only documents created between 1 January 2022 to date
c. delete "agendas" i.e. documents that set out the topics to be discussed in future meetings
d. clarify that the meeting type is limited to the OSI’s Audit and Risk Management Committee (ARMC) meetings
e. clarify that 'presentations' should be taken to mean materials presented at the ARMC meetings
2. "Executive board meeting briefing papers, agenda, minutes and presentations" to be amended as follows.
a. final versions of documents (i.e. no drafts are requested)
b. created between 1 January 2022 to date
c. delete "agendas" i.e. documents that set out the topics to be discussed in future meetings
d. clarify that 'presentations' should be taken to mean materials presented at the board meetings
3. "Briefing notes for presentations, appearances, hearings, visits, meetings, lectures or similar" to be amended as follows
a. final versions of documents (i.e. no drafts are requested)
b. these may include speaking notes, briefing notes, handouts, powerpoint slides, recordings, transcripts or similar materials relied on, provided or produced, when senior staff of the OSI are, for example, delivering lectures or training, presenting to parliament or committees, meeting stakeholders or partner organisations or for similar events.
c. limited to material produced by or for senior OSI staff including Mr Mark Weinberg, Mr Chris Moraitis, Ms Helen Daniels or Mr Ross Barnett.
Yours sincerely,
James Smith
OFFICIAL
Dear Mr Smith
I refer you your email of 10 July 2024 revising the scope of this FOI
request to be for the following documents:
1. "Risk audit meeting briefing papers, agenda, minutes and
presentations":
a. final versions of documents (i.e. no drafts are requested)
b. only documents created between 1 January 2022 to date
c. delete "agendas" i.e. documents that set out the topics to be
discussed in future meetings
d. clarify that the meeting type is limited to the OSI’s Audit and
Risk Management Committee (ARMC) meetings
e. clarify that 'presentations' should be taken to mean materials
presented at the ARMC meetings
2. "Executive board meeting briefing papers, agenda, minutes and
presentations":
a. final versions of documents (i.e. no drafts are requested)
b. created between 1 January 2022 to date
c. delete "agendas" i.e. documents that set out the topics to be
discussed in future meetings
d. clarify that 'presentations' should be taken to mean materials
presented at the board meetings
3. "Briefing notes for presentations, appearances, hearings, visits,
meetings, lectures or similar":
a. final versions of documents (i.e. no drafts are requested)
b. these may include speaking notes, briefing notes, handouts,
powerpoint slides, recordings, transcripts or similar materials
relied on, provided or produced, when senior staff of the OSI
are, for example, delivering lectures or training, presenting to
parliament or committees, meeting stakeholders or partner
organisations or for similar events.
c. limited to material produced by or for senior OSI staff including
Mr Mark Weinberg, Mr Chris Moraitis, Ms Helen Daniels or Mr Ross
Barnett.
I am writing to ask you to further clarify your request by reply email by
22 July 2024. This is because:
o parts 1-2 of your request still capture a large number of documents
and processing them is likely to substantially and unreasonably divert
the resources of the OSI from its other operations.
o the description of the documents sought in part 3 of your request
remains such that the OSI unable to conduct reasonable searches to
identify the documents sought.
I have provided further information below for you to consider. Please
note that if you do not clarify your request on or before 22 July 2024,
the OSI may need to take steps to practically refuse it under s 24 of the
FOI Act.
Parts 1-2 of your request – Volume of documents captured
I have recalculated the number of documents within these parts of your
request, having regard to the revised terms of your request. Currently
parts 1-2 of your request capture a total of 62 documents comprising an
estimated 3976 pages. Specifically:
o Part 1 captures 30 documents comprising approximately 1749 pages
o Part 2 captures 32 documents comprising approximately 2227 pages
Presuming it would take 1 minute per page to assess these documents, I
estimate that it would take approximately 66 hours to assess these
documents for your request. This estimate of assessment time is
conservative and may increase, subject to the complexity of the documents.
Please note that this estimate of time does not also include the time it
would take to complete other aspects of processing your request, such as
collating and preparing the documents for assessment; contacting and
considering the views of third parties who may need to be consulted before
a decision is made; preparing a decision on access for consideration by an
authorised OSI FOI decision-maker; and preparing for disclosure a final
decision and any documents that may be released to you. It also does not
include the time required to conduct searches and other work required for
part 3 of your request.
To clarify these parts of your request, we suggest that you do one or more
of the following:
o Limit your request to be for the agendas and minutes of the OSI’s
Executive Board and Audit and Risk Management Committee (ARMC)
meetings, rather than all briefing papers and presentations etc as
well. Typically, the agendas and minutes are shorter in content than
the actual papers etc presented (and these documents represent the
bulk of material currently captured by your request) but they provide
an overview of the topics discussed at the meetings and a summary of
any decisions our outcomes that may have resulted. This may be more
useful for making a targeted request in future for relevant papers
should you wish to do so.
o Refine the date range to be for a narrower time period - for example,
documents created during the calendar year 2024. Refining your request
this way would still mean that part 1 of your request would capture 7
document comprising 692 pages and part 2 of your request would capture
6 documents comprising 537 pages.
o Advise whether for these parts of your request you are
seeking documents that relate to a particular subject-matter or topic,
or contain certain information. Currently these documents span a wide
range of topics, including finance, legal, investigations and
governance matters. This is particularly so for Executive Board
documents which consider a variety of papers presented from areas
across the OSI.
Parts 3 of your request – Description of documents
The description provided for this part of your request – in its
current form – remains so broad that it is not possible for the OSI to
conduct reasonable searches to identify the documents sought. Identifying
the documents sought under this part of your request would require
involvement from all areas of the OSI and it is likely that a large-volume
of documents would also be returned, noting that the documents sought
cover a period of more than 3 years (January 2021 to 8 July 2024) and
cover briefs provided to senior staff for a broad variety of purposes and
topics.
Please withdraw this part of your request, particularly noting the scale
of parts 1-2 of your request above, or provide further information, such
as whether you are seeking to access briefing notes etc that:
o relate to a particular subject-matter or topic, or contain
certain information
o were created for briefing OSI senior staff for a particular purpose,
such as for Senate Estimates hearings or travel, or for meetings
between certain parties that may be of interest you.
o were created during a certain period of time (eg the 2024 calendar
year).
Kind regards
Sarah
Information Access and Records Manager
Office of the Special Investigator
E: [1][OSI request email]
[2]cid:image007.jpg@01D70603.F616B1F0
OFFICIAL
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. mailto:[OSI request email]
Dear OSI FOI and Privacy,
For categories 1&2 please provide a list of the documents.
For category 3 please provide a list of topics/issues covered by the scope of the request.
From those lists it should be possible to refine the request to be more manageable for you.
Thanks
Yours sincerely,
James Smith
OFFICIAL
Dear Mr Smith
I refer to your email seeking further information. You have asked the OSI
to provide the following information to assist you with clarifying the
scope of your request:
o For parts 1-2, a list of the documents.
o For part 3, a list of topics/issues covered by the scope of the
request.
Parts 1-2 of your request
You may revise your request to be for a list of the documents that would
be relevant to parts 1-2 of your request in its current form. The OSI may
produce such a document responsive to a request under s 17 of the FOI Act.
However, please be advised that it is unlikely that such a list would
contain useful information for making a more targeted request. The
documentation for each Executive Board and Audit Risk Management Committee
meeting is typically filed as an omnibus and the titles of those records
contain only the date of the meeting.
As previously suggested on 17 July 2024, you may wish to refine the scope
of your request to be for the agendas and minutes of meetings of the Audit
Risk Management Committee and Executive Board, 1 January 2022 to date. The
agendas outline the matters discussed at the meetings and the minutes
provide an overview of any decisions or outcomes. This information may
assist you with making more targeted subsequent FOI request should you
wish to do so.
Part 3 of your request
I am unable to provide you a list of topics/issues to which these
documents might relate. This part of your request is described so broadly
that it is not possible for the OSI to conduct reasonable searches to
begin identifying the documents sought. You have been asked to provide
further information so that this work can commence. In its current form,
this part of your request:
o would capture documents covering a period exceeding 3 years
o would require all areas of the OSI to search their holdings for
documents which might be relevant – please note the OSI does not have
a single file where briefs for all senior staff are stored.
o does not specify, even generally, whether the documents:
o relate to a particular subject-matter or topic, or contain
certain information
o were created for a particular purpose (e.g. Senate Estimates), or
for meetings with certain parties (e.g. Department of Defence,
Australian Federal Police etc, or other parties which may be of
interest to you)
o were authored by a particular area of the OSI (e.g. Finance and
Human Resources, Governance and Security, Communication and
Information Access, Information Technology, Legal and Policy)
Next steps
Advise by 22 July 2024 or sooner if possible in what way(s) you wish to
clarify your request. As previously advised, if you do not clarify your
request, the OSI may need to take steps to practically refuse it under s
24 of the FOI Act.
Kind regards
Sarah
Information Access and Records Manager
Office of the Special Investigator
E: [1][OSI request email]
[2]cid:image007.jpg@01D70603.F616B1F0
OFFICIAL
OFFICIAL
Dear Mr Smith,
Freedom of Information Request FOI24/15
Thank you for your emails received by the Office of the Special
Investigator on 8 and 10 July 2024 requesting access to documents under
the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act).
Please note that we are still awaiting your response to our request for
further information – we have asked you to clarify your request by today,
22 July 2024. As previously advised, if you do not clarify your request,
the OSI may need to take steps to practically refuse it under s 24 of the
FOI Act.
Currently, your request is for:
1. "Risk audit meeting briefing papers, agenda, minutes and
presentations":
a. final versions of documents (i.e. no drafts are requested)
b. only documents created between 1 January 2022 to date
c. delete "agendas" i.e. documents that set out the topics to be
discussed in future meetings
d. clarify that the meeting type is limited to the OSI’s Audit and
Risk Management Committee (ARMC) meetings
e. clarify that 'presentations' should be taken to mean materials
presented at the ARMC meetings
2. "Executive board meeting briefing papers, agenda, minutes and
presentations":
a. final versions of documents (i.e. no drafts are requested)
b. created between 1 January 2022 to date
c. delete "agendas" i.e. documents that set out the topics to be
discussed in future meetings
d. clarify that 'presentations' should be taken to mean materials
presented at the board meetings
3. "Briefing notes for presentations, appearances, hearings, visits,
meetings, lectures or similar":
a. final versions of documents (i.e. no drafts are requested)
b. these may include speaking notes, briefing notes, handouts,
powerpoint slides, recordings, transcripts or similar materials
relied on, provided or produced, when senior staff of the OSI
are, for example, delivering lectures or training, presenting to
parliament or committees, meeting stakeholders or partner
organisations or for similar events.
c. limited to material produced by or for senior OSI staff including
Mr Mark Weinberg, Mr Chris Moraitis, Ms Helen Daniels or Mr Ross
Barnett.
The due date for your request is 8 August 2024.
The 30-day timeframe for processing an FOI request starts the day after we
receive it – we received your request on 8 July 2024. However, if the due
date (the 30^th day) for a request falls on a Saturday, Sunday or a public
holiday, the timeframe ends the next business day.
The processing timeframe may be extended if you agree to it, or if we need
to contact third parties before making a decision - we will tell you if
this happens.
Please note that when we process a request we usually:
o Release the names of senior officers and publicly available contact
information.
o Delete personal information of junior officers of the OSI and other
government authorities (e.g. names, direct telephone numbers, flexible
working and leave arrangements).
o Exclude duplicates and incomplete email chains within the scope of the
FOI request.
o Publish any documents we release in response to an FOI request to our
[1]Disclosure Log, unless there is an exception (eg personal
information).
Please contact me at [2][OSI request email] if you have any
questions.
Kind regards,
Caroline
Office of the Special Investigator
E: [3][OSI request email]
From: OSI FOI and Privacy
Sent: Wednesday, 17 July 2024 12:00 PM
To: '[FOI #11650 email]'
<[4][FOI #11650 email]>
Subject: Further information sought by 22 July 2024 - Freedom of
Information request - OSI FOI24/15 - board, committee and presentation
materials [SEC=OFFICIAL]
OFFICIAL
Dear Mr Smith
I refer you your email of 10 July 2024 revising the scope of this FOI
request to be for the following documents:
1. "Risk audit meeting briefing papers, agenda, minutes and
presentations":
a. final versions of documents (i.e. no drafts are requested)
b. only documents created between 1 January 2022 to date
c. delete "agendas" i.e. documents that set out the topics to be
discussed in future meetings
d. clarify that the meeting type is limited to the OSI’s Audit and
Risk Management Committee (ARMC) meetings
e. clarify that 'presentations' should be taken to mean materials
presented at the ARMC meetings
2. "Executive board meeting briefing papers, agenda, minutes and
presentations":
a. final versions of documents (i.e. no drafts are requested)
b. created between 1 January 2022 to date
c. delete "agendas" i.e. documents that set out the topics to be
discussed in future meetings
d. clarify that 'presentations' should be taken to mean materials
presented at the board meetings
3. "Briefing notes for presentations, appearances, hearings, visits,
meetings, lectures or similar":
a. final versions of documents (i.e. no drafts are requested)
b. these may include speaking notes, briefing notes, handouts,
powerpoint slides, recordings, transcripts or similar materials
relied on, provided or produced, when senior staff of the OSI
are, for example, delivering lectures or training, presenting to
parliament or committees, meeting stakeholders or partner
organisations or for similar events.
c. limited to material produced by or for senior OSI staff including
Mr Mark Weinberg, Mr Chris Moraitis, Ms Helen Daniels or Mr Ross
Barnett.
I am writing to ask you to further clarify your request by reply email by
22 July 2024. This is because:
o parts 1-2 of your request still capture a large number of documents
and processing them is likely to substantially and unreasonably divert
the resources of the OSI from its other operations.
o the description of the documents sought in part 3 of your request
remains such that the OSI unable to conduct reasonable searches to
identify the documents sought.
I have provided further information below for you to consider. Please
note that if you do not clarify your request on or before 22 July 2024,
the OSI may need to take steps to practically refuse it under s 24 of the
FOI Act.
Parts 1-2 of your request – Volume of documents captured
I have recalculated the number of documents within these parts of your
request, having regard to the revised terms of your request. Currently
parts 1-2 of your request capture a total of 62 documents comprising an
estimated 3976 pages. Specifically:
o Part 1 captures 30 documents comprising approximately 1749 pages
o Part 2 captures 32 documents comprising approximately 2227 pages
Presuming it would take 1 minute per page to assess these documents, I
estimate that it would take approximately 66 hours to assess these
documents for your request. This estimate of assessment time is
conservative and may increase, subject to the complexity of the documents.
Please note that this estimate of time does not also include the time it
would take to complete other aspects of processing your request, such as
collating and preparing the documents for assessment; contacting and
considering the views of third parties who may need to be consulted before
a decision is made; preparing a decision on access for consideration by an
authorised OSI FOI decision-maker; and preparing for disclosure a final
decision and any documents that may be released to you. It also does not
include the time required to conduct searches and other work required for
part 3 of your request.
To clarify these parts of your request, we suggest that you do one or more
of the following:
o Limit your request to be for the agendas and minutes of the OSI’s
Executive Board and Audit and Risk Management Committee (ARMC)
meetings, rather than all briefing papers and presentations etc as
well. Typically, the agendas and minutes are shorter in content than
the actual papers etc presented (and these documents represent the
bulk of material currently captured by your request) but they provide
an overview of the topics discussed at the meetings and a summary of
any decisions our outcomes that may have resulted. This may be more
useful for making a targeted request in future for relevant papers
should you wish to do so.
o Refine the date range to be for a narrower time period - for example,
documents created during the calendar year 2024. Refining your request
this way would still mean that part 1 of your request would capture 7
document comprising 692 pages and part 2 of your request would capture
6 documents comprising 537 pages.
o Advise whether for these parts of your request you are
seeking documents that relate to a particular subject-matter or topic,
or contain certain information. Currently these documents span a wide
range of topics, including finance, legal, investigations and
governance matters. This is particularly so for Executive Board
documents which consider a variety of papers presented from areas
across the OSI.
Parts 3 of your request – Description of documents
The description provided for this part of your request – in its
current form – remains so broad that it is not possible for the OSI to
conduct reasonable searches to identify the documents sought. Identifying
the documents sought under this part of your request would require
involvement from all areas of the OSI and it is likely that a large-volume
of documents would also be returned, noting that the documents sought
cover a period of more than 3 years (January 2021 to 8 July 2024) and
cover briefs provided to senior staff for a broad variety of purposes and
topics.
Please withdraw this part of your request, particularly noting the scale
of parts 1-2 of your request above, or provide further information, such
as whether you are seeking to access briefing notes etc that:
o relate to a particular subject-matter or topic, or contain
certain information
o were created for briefing OSI senior staff for a particular purpose,
such as for Senate Estimates hearings or travel, or for meetings
between certain parties that may be of interest you.
o were created during a certain period of time (eg the 2024 calendar
year).
Kind regards
Sarah
Information Access and Records Manager
Office of the Special Investigator
E: [5][OSI request email]
[6]cid:image007.jpg@01D70603.F616B1F0
OFFICIAL
OFFICIAL
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.osi.gov.au/about-us/corporat...
2. mailto:[OSI request email]
3. mailto:[OSI request email]
4. mailto:[FOI #11650 email]
5. mailto:[OSI request email]
Dear OSI FOI and Privacy,
I agree to your suggested refined scope for items 1 and 2.
Regarding item 3, please limit it to training presentations and lecture notes, slides or handouts given by the senior staff mentioned.
Yours sincerely,
James Smith
OFFICIAL
Dear Mr Smith,
We apologise for the delay in responding but we seek further clarification
on the revision of scope for this request.
You advised on 23 July 2024 that you agreed to the refined scope for items
1 and 2 but did not indicate how you wished to refine the scope.
We request you clarify which parts you agree to refine and provide detail
on this, for example:
• Advise if your request is only for agendas and
minutes of the OSI’s Executive Board and Audit and Risk Management
Committee (ARMC) meetings, rather than all briefing papers and
presentations etc as well.
• Provide the date range - for example, documents
created during the calendar year 2024.
• Advise whether for these parts of your request you
are seeking documents that relate to a particular subject-matter or topic,
or contain certain information. Currently these documents span a wide
range of topics, including finance, legal, investigations and governance
matters. This is particularly so for Executive Board documents which
consider a variety of papers presented from areas across the OSI.
In regards to item 3, we note your revision of scope.
Request for more time
Given the scope for this request is not yet settled, we also seek an
extension of 30 days to process your request. If you agree to this
happening, the due date for your request will be: 9 September 2024.
However, we will work to process and finalise your request as soon as we
can. Your request is currently due today 8 August 2024.
What you need to do
Respond via email by COB 12 August 2024 with the requested further detail
on the revision of scope and if you agree to giving the OSI an extra 30
days to process your request.
If you agree, we will tell the Office of the Australian Information
Commissioner (OAIC) that you have agreed to giving us extra time (we must
do this under the FOI Act).
Kind regards,
OSI FOI and Privacy
Dear OSI FOI and Privacy,
In relation to request 1 and 2 please provide the agendas and minutes of the OSI’s Executive Board and Audit and Risk Management Committee (ARMC) meetings and lists of the documents presented at each meeting (tabulating subject, author, date, number of pages), rather than copies of the presented documents.
In relation to the extension, I note the response is overdue. Rather than than submitting the matter for review by the OAIC, please confirm if the materials will still be provided? I agree to an extension to COB 6 September.
Yours sincerely,
James Smith
The Office of the Special Investigator is closed until Monday 2 January
2022 – your email will be attended to as soon as possible on our return.
Kind regards
OSI FOI and Privacy | Office of the Special Investigator
Email: [1][OSI request email]
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. mailto:[OSI request email]
Dear Office of the Special Investigator,
Please can you provide a response to my clarification and indicate when you intend to provide a determination.
Yours faithfully,
James Smith
OFFICIAL
Dear Mr Smith
Thank you for your email below seeking an update on your FOI request.
Based on a review of the information provided to date, I understand your
request is now for:
1. The agendas and minutes of the OSI’s Executive Board and Audit and
Risk Management Committee (ARMC) meetings. Also provide lists of the
documents presented at each meeting (tabulating subject, author, date,
number of pages), rather than copies of the presented documents.
a. final versions of the agendas and minutes (i.e. no drafts are
requested)
b. only documents created between 1 January 2022 to date
2. Training presentations and lecture notes, slides or handouts:
a. given by Mr Mark Weinberg, Mr Chris Moraitis, Ms Helen Daniels or Mr
Ross Barnett.
b. final versions of documents (i.e. no drafts are requested)
Can you please confirm if my understanding of your request is correct?
Alternatively, please clearly advise how your request should read. I would
appreciate it if you could get back to me by 26 August 2024 or sooner of
possible.
Please be assured that we are still processing your request and that we
intend to provide you a decision on it as soon as we can. Due to competing
priorities and other events there has recently been an impact on the
staffing resources available for processing FOI requests at the OSI – your
patience is appreciated.
Kind regards
Sarah
Information Access and Records Manager
Office of the Special Investigator
E: [1][OSI request email]
[2]cid:image007.jpg@01D70603.F616B1F0
Dear OSI FOI and Privacy,
Yes, I believe your email now captures the scope of the request.
Thank you for your assistance and patience.
Yours sincerely,
James Smith
Dear OSI FOI and Privacy,
Please can you provide an ETA on the decision.
Yours sincerely,
James Smith
Thank you for contacting Freedom of Information (FOI) at OSI.
This email acknowledges your correspondence and provides some general
information about FOI.
For information about how to make a request under the FOI Act please refer
to [1]https://www.osi.gov.au/freedom-information
The statutory processing time for FOI’s is 30 days, however this may be
extended if the agency needs to consult third
parties or for other reasons.
If you have submitted an FOI request, the agency will write to you again
within 30 days of receiving your request.
This correspondence may:
* Seek further information from you to help us process your request,
* Provide you with a decision on your FOI request, or
* Discuss whether an extension of time is needed to process your
request.
This FOI inbox is monitored business hours Monday to Friday, excluding
public holidays.
For enquiries about other matters, please refer
to: [2]https://www.osi.gov.au/contact-us
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1. https://www.osi.gov.au/freedom-information
2. https://www.osi.gov.au/contact-us
Dear Office of the Special Investigator,
Referred to OAIC WEB-MR-24-00262 as I have not heard from you
Yours faithfully,
James Smith
OFFICIAL
Dear Mr Smith
Freedom of Information Request FOI24/15 – Request for information
This email is about your Freedom of Information (FOI) request which is
being processed by the Office of the Special Investigator (OSI).
Please carefully read the letter attached to this email. If you do not
respond to the letter by 3 October 2024, we will stop processing your FOI
request and we will close it as ‘withdrawn’.
We understand from correspondence received from you earlier today that you
have referred this matter to the Office of the Australian Information
Commissioner (OAIC). Please be advised that we will continue to process
your request and make a decision on it as soon as we can and, if the OAIC
contacts us, we will also respond to their enquiries.
If you have any questions, please contact me at:
[1][OSI request email].
Kind regards
Sarah
Information Access and Records Manager
Office of the Special Investigator
E: [2][OSI request email]
[3]cid:image007.jpg@01D70603.F616B1F0
OFFICIAL
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
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1. mailto:[OSI request email]
2. mailto:[OSI request email]
Dear OSI FOI and Privacy,
I revise the request by limiting the time frame from 1 July 2023 to date.
I also withdraw the request for the list, however I note you could have pointed me to the list on your website: https://www.osi.gov.au/publications/sena...
I note in response to your letter the comments by Synergy in its audit report of the OSI, where it is stated at page 24 of that report: "The DoF Guide also outlines that staff and resources must be delegated under section 23 of the FOl Act to enable compliance with the FOl Act. The Director-General has delegated a number of officers to make and/or review decisions under the FOl Act - the authorisation was signed on 27 April 2021."
Accordingly, it is not a reasonable excuse to refuse access to the documents requested on the basis of staffing where the OSI must have enough staff available to handle FOI requests.
Please continue to process the requst.
Yours sincerely,
James Smith
OFFICIAL
Dear Mr Smith
Freedom of Information Request FOI24/15 – Request for information
This email is about your Freedom of Information (FOI) request which is
being processed by the Office of the Special Investigator (OSI).
Please carefully read the letter attached to this email. If you do not
respond to the letter by 18 October 2024, we will stop processing your FOI
request and we will close it as ‘withdrawn’.
If you have any questions, please contact me to
[1][OSI request email].
Kind regards
Sarah
Information Access and Records Manager
Office of the Special Investigator
E: [2][OSI request email]
[3]cid:image007.jpg@01D70603.F616B1F0
OFFICIAL
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. mailto:[OSI request email]
2. mailto:[OSI request email]
Dear OSI FOI and Privacy,
I revise the request by consenting to the redaction of information concerning the two businesses and five individuals. This will remove, at minimum, 10.5 hours of the OSI's estimate in row two of the table.
The bulk of the time, in third party consultation (25.5 hours) and decision making (31 hours) is purely speculative. There is no assessment or metric used that is based on an actual time-in-motion type study to come to the estimate of hours alleged. The hours appear artificially inflated to justify the refusal to provide the information.
It is highly unlikely that for 100 pages you will require 31 hours to conduct a second 'review' of the materials. The Assessment process in row two of the table is estimated to be 3 hours. You now say that some other "Determination" phase will take ten times that Assessment phase. There is no reasonable justification as to how the "Assessment" phase of 3 hours differs to the "Determination" phase of 31 hours. There is mention of it taking 7 different OSI "areas" 3 hours each to review the documents (presumably again) it is not clear what those 7 areas are or their function or purpose or how they differ from each other. It is also not clear what part of the 100 pages the 7 different areas need to review. There is a dearth of substantiation supporting these bloated estimates.
It is also not clear why, after 3 hours of Assessment and 24 hours of OSI internal review in the Determination phase, there is yet again another 7 hours required by a decision maker in the Determination phase to review the materials. That is an additional full working day to review a very simple request and 100 pages which at this point would have been through an Assessment, including commentary from 10 other departments external to OSI and then another type of review by 7 internal OSI departments.
The above position from OSI comes after weeks of correspondence and revisions to the scope of the request, in most part in line with the OSI's suggestions.
Additionally, it could be inferred that the purpose of only employing one FOI officer (contrary to government policy and the advice of your own external consultant) is to have an additional reason to refuse access to materials. The OSI has a budget of over $50m per annum and is well funded to properly carry out its public service obligations but has chosen not to employ the personnel required to fulfil those functions.
Please provide your decision by 4.00pm AEST 11 October 2024, failing which the matter will be referred to the Information Commissioner.
Yours sincerely,
James Smith
OFFICIAL
Dear Mr Smith
I refer to your email below. Based on the information provided, I
understand your request is now for:
1. The agendas and minutes of the OSI's Executive Board and Audit and
Risk Management Committee (ARMC) meetings.
a. final versions of the agendas and minutes (i.e. no drafts are
requested)
b. only documents created between 1 July 2023 to date
2. Training presentations and lecture notes, slides or handouts:
a. given by Mr Mark Weinberg, Mr Chris Moraitis, Ms Helen Daniels or
Mr Ross Barnett.
b. final versions of documents (i.e. no drafts are requested)
Exclude information concerning the businesses and individuals referred to
in the OSI’s practical refusal request consultation letter dated 3 October
2024.
We will consider the information you have provided and I will contact you
again to advise if the practical refusal reason has been lifted.
Please note you have already referred this request to the Office of the
Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) – the OAIC’s reference is:
MR24/01508.
Kind regards
Sarah
Information Access and Records Manager
Office of the Special Investigator
E: [1][OSI request email]
[2]cid:image007.jpg@01D70603.F616B1F0
OFFICIAL
Dear Mr Smith
Freedom of Information Request FOI24/15
I am writing to tell you that the OSI has made a decision on your Freedom
of Information (FOI) request.
Please find attached the decision letter.
Please contact me by email if you have any questions.
Kind regards
Sarah
Information Access and Records Manager
Office of the Special Investigator
E: [1][OSI request email]
[2]cid:image007.jpg@01D70603.F616B1F0
OFFICIAL
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. mailto:[OSI request email]