Outsourcing of Centrelink Call Centres Part II
Dear Department of Human Services,
I wish to request documents under the FOI Act relating to the outsourcing of Centrelink call centre functions to the private sector. My previous request ref: LEX 43983 was refused as no documents were found.
After discussion with Robert from your team, I am revising the request to facilitate an easier search within your PDMS database and to widen the date range.
I would like to request:
1. All Ministerial Briefs relating to the decision to outsource Centrelink call centres dated from January 1, 2016 (as advised by your team).
(Some Briefs may refer to the KPMG Serco Trial Report so this might be one of many useful search terms.)
2. Any general correspondence (letters, emails) to the Minister or the department from KPMG, Concentrix Services, Serco, DataCom Connect and Stellar Asia Pacific that relate to the Serco trial or the decision to outsource Centrelink call centre services (please exclude documents that relate to the official tender process).
Also please exclude the 'Serco Trial Report' in the request as an earlier request LEX 43923 noted it remains Cabinet classified.
Please feel free to contact me should you have any queries.
Thank you for any assistance you might provide.
Yours faithfully,
Evelyn Doyle
Dear Ms Doyle,
Please find attached, an acknowledgement of your request under the Freedom
of Information Act 1982.
Kind regards,
Freedom of Information
Employment Law and Freedom of Information Branch | Legal Services Division
Department of Human Services
Email: [1][email address]
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Dear Ms Doyle,
Please find attached a formal correspondence letter with regards to your
Freedom of Information request LEX 45021.
Kind regards,
Catherine
Freedom of Information
Employment Law and Freedom of Information Branch | Legal Services Division
Department of Human Services
Email: [1][email address]
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Dear FOI Legal Team (Catherine),
Thank you for identifying the documents relevant to my request.
I have made the payment via the link provided in the amount of $61.67 and look forward to receiving the documents.
Yours sincerely,
Evelyn Doyle
Dear Ms Doyle
Please find attached correspondence in relation to your Freedom of
Information request.
Regards
Freedom of Information Team
Employment Law and Freedom of Information Branch | Legal Services Division
Department of Human Services
[1][email address]
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Dear FOI Legal Team,
Thank you for your advice regarding the decision to consult with third parties and extending the request to another 30 days.
Yours sincerely,
Evelyn Doyle
Dear Ms Doyle,
Freedom of Information Request – Extension of Time
I refer to your freedom of information request LEX 45021.
The Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) provides that the processing
time for a request may be extended in some situations. With your written
agreement and written notice of the agreement to the Office of the
Australian Information Commissioner, section 15AA of the FOI Act provides
that the decision notification period can be extended by a period of no
more than 30 days in certain circumstances.
As notified to you on 2 July 2019, the department is undertaking a third
party consultation in relation to your request. We have been in contact
with the third party but we are yet to receive their formal response.
Therefore, we request an extension of time of 30 days in order to complete
our consultation with the third party.
If you agree to this extension, the new due date for your request will be
5 September 2019.
Action Required
If you agree to the 30 day extension of time, could you please reply to
this email with ‘I agree’ by 12pm Thursday 1 August 2019.
If you do not agree to provide the extension, the department may seek an
extension of time from the Office of the Australian Information
Commissioner.
If you have any questions or require any further clarification, please
contact me via return email.
Kind regards,
Catherine
Freedom of Information Team
Employment Law and Freedom of Information Branch | Legal Services Division
Department of Human Services
Email: [1][email address]
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Dear Catherine
Thanks for your correspondence requesting another 30 days to allow time to hear back from a third party.
As you know it is only a courtesy for third parties to be contacted in regard to freedom of information requests, the department having the final decision on whether to release documents that fall under the scope of the request. Even if a third party objects to the request, it cannot be exempted unless it falls under the usual legitimate exemptions. In addition, as you would be aware, the third party's failure to respond is not in itself a reason to exempt.
I believe 30 days is more than sufficient time to respond to this request. As such, I do not agree to the extension of another 30 days which would be 60 days in total plus the time already spent on processing the request.
I would however, be happy to extend the time to ONE more week (and no more) to allow extra time for the organisation to respond and for the department to remind the third party of their obligations under the FOI Act.
Yours sincerely,
Evelyn Doyle
Our reference: RQ19/02046
Agency reference: LEX 45021
Ms Evelyn Doyle
Sent by email: [1][FOI #5468 email]
Extension of time application by the Department of Human Services
Dear Ms Doyle
I write to advise that on 1 August 2019, the Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner (the OAIC) received an application from the
Department of Human Services (the Department) for an extension of time to
process your FOI request.
The Department has applied for an extension of time under s 15AB of the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) because your request is considered
to be complex.
The Department has advised the OAIC that:
o the Department is experiencing delays with conducting consultations
with third parties
o the Department has followed up on multiple occasions with the third
party for a response. The third party advised the Department that the
Department’s consultation notice is being considered by the third
party’s legal team
o further time is required for the Department to receive and consider
consultation responses from the third party and another Commonwealth
entity.
The Department has requested an extension of 14 days to 20 August 2019. I
will take any comments you may have to make into account when deciding the
application.
Please respond to this email by 4pm 9 August 2019. If I do not hear from
you by this date, I will proceed to make a decision on the basis of the
information provided to me by the Department.
You will be notified of the decision once the matter has been finalised.
Further information about extension of time requests may be found on our
website at [2]Extensions of time.
Contact
If you have any questions, please contact me on (02) 9284 9686 or via
email [3][email address]. In all correspondence please include reference
number at the top of this email.
Yours sincerely
[4]O A I C logo Adie Chang | Assistant Review
and Investigation Adviser
(Legal)
Freedom of Information Dispute
Resolution
Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001 |
[5]oaic.gov.au
+61 2 9284 9686 |
[6][email address]
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Dear OAIC team
Thank you for your letter advising of the request by the Department of Human Services (DHS) for an extension to process my FOI request.
I agree to the extension of 14 days with response due from DHS by 20 August 2019.
DHS had originally requested 30 days which I thought was too long given time already passed, so I am pleased the delay will be shorter than expected.
Thank you for your assistance.
Yours sincerely,
Evelyn Doyle
Our reference: RQ19/02046
Agency reference: LEX 45021
Ms Evelyn Doyle
Sent by email: [1][FOI #5468 email]
Extension of time under s 15AB
Dear Ms Doyle
Please find attached correspondence in relation to the processing of your
FOI request.
Kind regards
[2]O A I C logo Adie Chang | Assistant Review
and Investigation Adviser
(Legal)
Freedom of Information Dispute
Resolution
Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001 |
[3]oaic.gov.au
+61 2 9284 9686 |
[4][email address]
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Dear OAIC team
Thank you for your response, however the correspondence has not been attached. I wonder if you could re-send.
Many thanks.
Yours sincerely,
Evelyn Doyle
Our reference: RQ19/02046
Agency reference: LEX 45021
Dear Ms Doyle
Thank you for your email. Please accept my apologies for not attaching the
correspondence.
Please find attached correspondence in relation to the processing of your
FOI request.
Kind regards
[1]O A I C logo Adie Chang | Assistant Review
and Investigation Adviser
(Legal)
Freedom of Information Dispute
Resolution
Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001 |
[2]oaic.gov.au
+61 2 9284 9686 |
[3][email address]
[7]Subscribe [8]Subscribe to
[4]Facebook | [5]LinkedIn | [6]Twitter | icon Information
Matters
Dear Ms Doyle,
Please find attached the decision letter relating to your request for
access to documents held by the Department of Human Services under the
Freedom of Information Act 1982.
Kind regards,
Catherine
Freedom of Information Team
Employment Law and Freedom of Information Branch | Legal Services Division
Department of Human Services
Email: [1][email address]
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IMPORTANT: This e-mail is for the use of the intended recipient only and
may contain information that is confidential, commercially valuable and/or
subject to legal or parliamentary privilege. If you are not the intended
recipient you are notified that any review, re-transmission, disclosure,
dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon,
this information is prohibited and may result in severe penalties. If you
have received this e-mail in error please notify the sender immediately
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with any attachments. Please consider the environment before printing this
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Dear Ms Doyle,
Further to my email of 20 August 2019, please find attached the document
relating to your freedom of information request.
Kind regards,
Catherine
Freedom of Information Team
Employment Law and Freedom of Information Branch | Legal Services Division
Department of Human Services
Email: [1][email address]
From: FOI.LEGAL.TEAM <[email address]>
Sent: Tuesday, 20 August 2019 5:42 PM
To: '[FOI #5468 email]'
<[FOI #5468 email]>
Subject: LEX 45021 - Your FOI Request - Notification of decision
[SEC=UNOFFICIAL]
Dear Ms Doyle,
Please find attached the decision letter relating to your request for
access to documents held by the Department of Human Services under the
Freedom of Information Act 1982.
Kind regards,
Catherine
Freedom of Information Team
Employment Law and Freedom of Information Branch | Legal Services Division
Department of Human Services
Email: [2][email address]
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Dear FOI Team,
Thank you for your response however the document is not attached or loading correctly. I wonder if you could try sending the final response and document again.
Thank you in advance.
Yours sincerely,
Evelyn Doyle
Dear FOI team
It looks like the document is now loading correctly, please ignore my previous response.
Thank you.
Yours sincerely,
Evelyn Doyle
Evelyn Doyle left an annotation ()
Release has been delayed until 6 August 2019 to allow time for contact with relevant third parties.