OFFICIAL

 

Reference: 2024/387 

 

Dear Trav S

 

Thank you for your email of 25 November 2024 in which you made a request
under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act) to the Department
of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (the Department). 

You set out the terms of the request as follows:

 

Please accept my request for documents in accordance with the FOI Act.

1. I wish to obtain a copy of the Department's fraud and corruption
control plan;

2. I wish to obtain a copy of any document produced by a Peter Rush or a
John Reid relating to reports of fraud and corruption within the
Humanitarian Overseas Service Medal program.

PM&C claims that it does not tolerate fraud and corruption and takes all
reasonable measures to prevent, detect and respond to fraud. Despite its
claim, documents released to FOI reveal particular public officials
tolerated fraud and appear to have failed to report it in accordance with
their duties to do so.

Please refer to FOI/2020/246 regarding the Humanitarian Overseas Service
Medal Regulations Delegation.

3. I wish to obtain a copy of the document delegating HOSM powers to the
person that followed Peter Rush.

4. I wish to obtain a document recording name, position and contact
details of the Department's most senior public official responsible for
ensuing the Department's fraud and corruption control framework is
regularly reviewed and aligns with the Commonwealth Fraud Control
Framework 2017

 

Timeframe for receiving your decision and request for extension of time

The 30 day statutory period for processing your request commenced from the
day after the Department received your request. A decision is therefore
due from us by 27 December 2024. However, we note that the processing time
overlaps with the departmental shutdown period between Christmas and New
Years Day. In light of this, we would like to seek your agreement to a 30
day extension under section 15AA of the FOI Act.  

 

Please confirm your agreement to the extension of time by replying to this
email by 3 December 2024.

 

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
[1]https://www.pmc.gov.au/government/depart...,
subject to certain exceptions. 

 

If you think you might wish to raise any objections to the publication of
your requested document, which may be released to you, please contact us
by email at [2][DPMC request email].  If you do wish to object to the
publication of information, you would need to set out your 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.

 

If you consider the information categorised above is relevant to the terms
of your request please let us know at [3][DPMC request email], otherwise we will
take it that you agree this category of information may be reasonably
regarded as irrelevant and we will delete this information if it appears
in the documents that are otherwise responsive to your request.  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.

 

Further information on FOI processing can be found at the website of the
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at
[4]https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-infor...

 

Yours sincerely

 

Coordinator | FOI Section

Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

p. (02) 6271 5849

e. [5][email address]  w. [6]pmc.gov.au 

 

 

[7]http://url5193.checkbox.ai/wf/open?upn=u...

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References

Visible links
1. https://www.pmc.gov.au/about-us/accounta...
2. mailto:[DPMC request email]
3. mailto:[DPMC request email]
4. https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-infor...
5. mailto:[email address]
6. https://pmc.gov.au/