PMC action against APS misconduct

WF made this Freedom of Information request to Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

This request has been closed to new correspondence from the public body. Contact us if you think it ought be re-opened.

The request was partially successful.

WF
Sent

Dear Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet,

Hello - I'd like to make an FOI request.

I refer the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (PMC) to the following media coverage:

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/national...

https://www.crikey.com.au/2017/10/24/lib...

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/national...

which intimates that the Public Service Commissioner, Mr John Lloyd, has acted corruptly, unlawfully and/or otherwise improperly.

One would expect, and the public interest would require, that in the normal course of an ethical and apolitical public service, that the Secretary of PMC, being the head of the public service, would take an interest in such allegations.

Accordingly, I seek access to documents held by the Secretary of PMC that concern the matters alluded to in the articles mentioned above.

Appreciating the volume of documents held by the Secretary, the scope of my request is limited to:
- documents that exist as emails (including any attachments);
- documents that fall within the date range 23 October 2017 to the date of this application; and
- documents that contain the words: a)"John Lloyd" and/or "Lloyd"; as well as b) "IPA" and/or "Institute of Public Affairs".

Further, I'm happy for the personal information of anyone who's not a public servant/MP/Minister to be redacted from relevant documents.

On the basis of the tightly defined scope set out above, the Department need only conduct a handful of searches (using the key terms referred to above) of *ALL* items (my emphasis) in the Secretary's email client (likely Microsoft Outlook) to quickly determine whether the Secretary holds any documents the subject of my request (and whether the Secretary has, in the general public interest, considered and/or inquired into the misconduct described).

Link to this Report
FOI, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

5 Attachments

UNCLASSIFIED

FOI/2018/015

 

Dear Mr/Ms WF,

 

Thank you for your email dated 27 January 2018, by the Department of the
Prime Minister and Cabinet (the Department), in which you made a request
to the Department under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act)
in the following terms:

 

I refer the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (PMC) to the
following media coverage:

 

[1]http://www.canberratimes.com.au/national...

 

[2]https://www.crikey.com.au/2017/10/24/lib...

 

[3]http://www.canberratimes.com.au/national...

 

which intimates that the Public Service Commissioner, Mr John Lloyd, has
acted corruptly, unlawfully and/or otherwise improperly.

 

One would expect, and the public interest would require, that in the
normal course of an ethical and apolitical public service, that the
Secretary of PMC, being the head of the public service, would take an
interest in such allegations.

 

Accordingly, I seek access to documents held by the Secretary of PMC that
concern the matters alluded to in the articles mentioned above.

 

Timeframe for receiving your decision

 

We received your clarified request on dated 27 January 2018 and the 30 day
statutory period for processing your request commenced from the day after
that date. You should therefore expect a decision from us by

26 February 2018.  The period of 30 days may be extended in certain
circumstances. We will advise you if there is any extension of time.

 

Charges

 

Agencies may decide that an applicant is liable to pay a charge in respect
of a request for access to documents. If the Department decides that you
are liable to pay a charge, we will send you a preliminary assessment of
the charge as soon as possible.

 

Publication of documents

 

Please note that information released under the FOI Act may later be
published online on our disclosure log at
[4]http://www.dpmc.gov.au/pmc/accountabilit...,
subject to certain exceptions. If you think you might wish to raise any
objections to the publication of any of the information which may be
released to you please contact us by email at [5][DPMC request email]. If you do
wish to object to the publication of information, you would need to
provide supporting reasons.

 

Exclusion of officers’ names and contact details

 

For documents that fall within scope of the request, it is the
Department’s policy to withhold:

·         any person’s signature;

·         the names and contact details of Australian Public Service
officers not in the Senior Executive Service (SES);

·         the mobile or direct numbers of SES officers;

·         the names and contact details of Ministerial staff at a level
below Chief of Staff.

 

The names and other details of SES officers will not be withheld unless
there is some reason for that information to be exempt from release. If
you require signatures, the names and contact details of non-SES officers
or Ministerial staff below the level of Chief of Staff, or the mobile or
direct numbers of SES officers please let us know at [6][DPMC request email] so
the decision-maker may consider within five working days. Otherwise we
will take it that you agree to that information being excluded from the
scope of your request (that is, the information will be treated as
irrelevant and redacted from any documents for release).

 

We will write again when the Department has more information. Further
information on FOI processing can be found at the website of the Office of
the Australian Information Commissioner at
[7]http://www.oaic.gov.au/foi-portal/about_....

 

Kind regards,

 

 

FOI Adviser

Access and Administrative Review | Honours and Legal Policy Branch

Government Division | Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

p. +61 2 6271 5849

e. | [8][DPMC request email] | [9]www.dpmc.gov.au

PO Box 6500 CANBERRA ACT 2600

[10]cid:image001.jpg@01D30607.6CF4DA00[11]cid:image002.jpg@01D30607.6CF4DA00[12]cid:image003.jpg@01D30607.6CF4DA00[13]cid:image004.jpg@01D30607.6CF4DA00

 

[14]cid:image005.jpg@01D30607.6CF4DA00

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

______________________________________________________________________

IMPORTANT: This message, and any attachments to it, contains information
that is confidential and may also be the subject of legal professional or
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you
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you
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References

Visible links
1. http://www.canberratimes.com.au/national...
2. https://www.crikey.com.au/2017/10/24/lib...
3. http://www.canberratimes.com.au/national...
4. http://www.dpmc.gov.au/pmc/accountabilit...
5. mailto:[DPMC request email]
6. mailto:[DPMC request email]
7. http://www.oaic.gov.au/foi-portal/about_...
8. mailto:[DPMC request email]
9. http://www.dpmc.gov.au/
10. https://twitter.com/pmc_gov_au
11. https://www.linkedin.com/company/departm...
12. https://twitter.com/indigenous_gov
13. https://www.facebook.com/indigenous.gov....

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Link to this Report
FOI, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

5 Attachments

UNCLASSIFIED

Dear WF

 

We would be grateful if you could advise whether you be willing to exclude
the following documents from the scope of your FOI request:

·        daily media summaries

·        where an email is contained in a later email chain, exclude the
earlier email as a duplicate.

 

Yours sincerely

 

FOI Adviser

Access and Administrative Review Section | Legal Policy Branch

Government Division | Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

p. (02) 6271 5849

e. [1][DPMC request email] | w. [2]www.pmc.gov.au

One National Circuit Barton ACT 2600 | PO Box 6500 CANBERRA ACT 2600

[3]cid:image001.jpg@01D30607.6CF4DA00[4]cid:image002.jpg@01D30607.6CF4DA00[5]cid:image003.jpg@01D30607.6CF4DA00 [6]cid:image004.jpg@01D30607.6CF4DA00

[7]cid:image005.jpg@01D30607.6CF4DA00

 

-----Original Message-----
From: WF [[8]mailto:[FOI #4341 email]]
Sent: Saturday, 27 January 2018 8:51 AM
To: FOI
Subject: Freedom of Information request - PMC action against APS
misconduct

 

Dear Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet,

 

Hello - I'd like to make an FOI request.

 

I refer the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (PMC) to the
following media coverage:

 

[9]http://www.canberratimes.com.au/national...

 

[10]https://www.crikey.com.au/2017/10/24/lib...

 

[11]http://www.canberratimes.com.au/national...

 

which intimates that the Public Service Commissioner, Mr John Lloyd, has
acted corruptly, unlawfully and/or otherwise improperly.

 

One would expect, and the public interest would require, that in the
normal course of an ethical and apolitical public service, that the
Secretary of PMC, being the head of the public service, would take an
interest in such allegations.

 

Accordingly, I seek access to documents held by the Secretary of PMC that
concern the matters alluded to in the articles mentioned above.

 

Appreciating the volume of documents held by the Secretary, the scope of
my request is limited to:

-              documents that exist as emails (including any attachments);

-              documents that fall within the date range 23 October 2017
to the date of this application; and

-              documents that contain the words: a)"John Lloyd" and/or
"Lloyd"; as well as b) "IPA" and/or "Institute of Public Affairs".

 

Further, I'm happy for the personal information of anyone who's not a
public servant/MP/Minister to be redacted from relevant documents.

 

On the basis of the tightly defined scope set out above, the Department
need only conduct a handful of searches (using the key terms referred to
above) of *ALL* items (my emphasis) in the Secretary's email client
(likely Microsoft Outlook) to quickly determine whether the Secretary
holds any documents the subject of my request (and whether the Secretary
has, in the general public interest, considered and/or inquired into the
misconduct described).

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Please use this email address for all replies to this request:

[12][FOI #4341 email]

 

Is [13][DPMC request email] the wrong address for Freedom of Information
requests to Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet? If so, please
contact us using this form:

[14]https://www.righttoknow.org.au/change_re...

 

This request has been made by an individual using Right to Know. This
message and any reply that you make will be published on the internet.
More information on how Right to Know works can be found at:

[15]https://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/offi...

 

If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web
manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.

 

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------

 

______________________________________________________________________

IMPORTANT: This message, and any attachments to it, contains information
that is confidential and may also be the subject of legal professional or
other privilege. If you are not the intended recipient of this message,
you
must not review, copy, disseminate or disclose its contents to any other
party or take action in reliance of any material contained within it. If
you
have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately
by
return email informing them of the mistake and delete all copies of the
message from your computer system.
______________________________________________________________________

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[DPMC request email]
2. http://www.pmc.gov.au/
3. https://twitter.com/pmc_gov_au
4. https://www.linkedin.com/company/departm...
5. https://twitter.com/indigenous_gov
6. https://www.facebook.com/indigenous.gov....
8. mailto:[FOI #4341 email]
9. http://www.canberratimes.com.au/national...
10. https://www.crikey.com.au/2017/10/24/lib...
11. http://www.canberratimes.com.au/national...
12. mailto:[FOI #4341 email]
13. mailto:[DPMC request email]
14. https://www.righttoknow.org.au/change_re...
15. https://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/offi...

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Link to this Report
WF
Sent

Dear FOI,

Thank your for your email.

Where a relevant email is contained in a later email chain, I am willing to exclude the earlier email as a duplicate.

I am not willing to exclude relevant daily media summaries because there is a wide public interest in knowing when the Secretary/head of the APS was put on notice of corrupt conduct engaged in by a senior public servant who is the head of an agency within the portfolio for which the Secretary has oversight.

Yours sincerely,

WF

Link to this Report
FOI, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

6 Attachments

UNCLASSIFIED

Dear WF

 

I refer to your request under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 to the
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.

 

Please find attached the decision on your FOI request. Due to file size,
copies of documents that can be released will be sent in a separate email
to you.

 

As requested by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
(OAIC), the Department will also provide a copy of the decision to the
OAIC.

 

Yours sincerely

 

FOI Adviser

Access and Administrative Review Section | Legal Policy Branch

Government Division | Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

p. (02) 6271 5849

e. [1][DPMC request email] | w. [2]www.pmc.gov.au

One National Circuit Barton ACT 2600 | PO Box 6500 CANBERRA ACT 2600

[3]cid:image001.jpg@01D30607.6CF4DA00[4]cid:image002.jpg@01D30607.6CF4DA00[5]cid:image003.jpg@01D30607.6CF4DA00 [6]cid:image004.jpg@01D30607.6CF4DA00

[7]cid:image005.jpg@01D30607.6CF4DA00

 

 

 

 

______________________________________________________________________

IMPORTANT: This message, and any attachments to it, contains information
that is confidential and may also be the subject of legal professional or
other privilege. If you are not the intended recipient of this message,
you
must not review, copy, disseminate or disclose its contents to any other
party or take action in reliance of any material contained within it. If
you
have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately
by
return email informing them of the mistake and delete all copies of the
message from your computer system.
______________________________________________________________________

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[DPMC request email]
2. http://www.pmc.gov.au/
3. https://twitter.com/pmc_gov_au
4. https://www.linkedin.com/company/departm...
5. https://twitter.com/indigenous_gov
6. https://www.facebook.com/indigenous.gov....

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Link to this Report
FOI, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

7 Attachments

UNCLASSIFIED

Dear WF

 

Please find attached copies of documents that can be released to you in
accordance with the decision on your FOI request.

 

Yours sincerely

 

FOI Adviser

Access and Administrative Review Section | Legal Policy Branch

Government Division | Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

p. (02) 6271 5849

e. [1][DPMC request email] | w. [2]www.pmc.gov.au

One National Circuit Barton ACT 2600 | PO Box 6500 CANBERRA ACT 2600

[3]cid:image001.jpg@01D30607.6CF4DA00[4]cid:image002.jpg@01D30607.6CF4DA00[5]cid:image003.jpg@01D30607.6CF4DA00 [6]cid:image004.jpg@01D30607.6CF4DA00

[7]cid:image005.jpg@01D30607.6CF4DA00

 

From: FOI
Sent: Friday, 27 April 2018 6:53 PM
To: 'WF'
Cc: FOI
Subject: PM&C FOI request FOI/2018/015 [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

 

UNCLASSIFIED

Dear WF

 

I refer to your request under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 to the
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.

 

Please find attached the decision on your FOI request. Due to file size,
copies of documents that can be released will be sent in a separate email
to you.

 

As requested by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
(OAIC), the Department will also provide a copy of the decision to the
OAIC.

 

Yours sincerely

 

FOI Adviser

Access and Administrative Review Section | Legal Policy Branch

Government Division | Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

p. (02) 6271 5849

e. [8][DPMC request email] | w. [9]www.pmc.gov.au

One National Circuit Barton ACT 2600 | PO Box 6500 CANBERRA ACT 2600

[10]cid:image001.jpg@01D30607.6CF4DA00[11]cid:image002.jpg@01D30607.6CF4DA00[12]cid:image003.jpg@01D30607.6CF4DA00 [13]cid:image004.jpg@01D30607.6CF4DA00

[14]cid:image005.jpg@01D30607.6CF4DA00

 

 

 

 

______________________________________________________________________

IMPORTANT: This message, and any attachments to it, contains information
that is confidential and may also be the subject of legal professional or
other privilege. If you are not the intended recipient of this message,
you
must not review, copy, disseminate or disclose its contents to any other
party or take action in reliance of any material contained within it. If
you
have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately
by
return email informing them of the mistake and delete all copies of the
message from your computer system.
______________________________________________________________________

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[DPMC request email]
2. http://www.pmc.gov.au/
3. https://twitter.com/pmc_gov_au
4. https://www.linkedin.com/company/departm...
5. https://twitter.com/indigenous_gov
6. https://www.facebook.com/indigenous.gov....
8. mailto:[DPMC request email]
9. http://www.pmc.gov.au/
10. https://twitter.com/pmc_gov_au
11. https://www.linkedin.com/company/departm...
12. https://twitter.com/indigenous_gov
13. https://www.facebook.com/indigenous.gov....

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