14 October 2021
Ref: OIA 2122-0762
Victoria Muninn
Email
: [FYI request #16957 email]
Tēnā koe Victoria
Clarification Sought and Notice of Extension of Timeframe to Transfer
Thank you for your email of 30 September 2021 to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment
requesting, under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act), the following information:
1. Kindly provide all relevant documentation - papers, discussion documents,
meeting notes, emails, or any other relevant information - about
implemented and planned co-funding arrangements with Microsoft that
the ministry has entered into since the last general election.
2. Please include a list of all beneficiary organisations, companies, NGOs, or
collectives, or co-partners, for each co-funding arrangement, as well as
their financial plans and data on Microsoft and the Ministry's provision of
funds to them.
3. Please note when the Ministry first entered into discussions with Microsoft
about co-funding arrangements, and include any strategy documents or
discussion documents that arose from those discussions (also providing
those).
4. If there are overarching documents about this new social and economic
model that the Ministry has produced, or has been guided by and
produced by another Ministry, business or institution, and list the names of
those documents, briefly describing the contents of each.
5. Finally, please provide a list of all of the other technology companies that
the Ministry has discussed the same co-funding arrangements with.
Clarification Sought
We understand that you may have consciously kept your request’s wording as broad as possible.
However, it is difficult to identify what particular areas of activity or concerns your request may relate to.
Could you please therefore clarify whether you had any specific arrangement, project, or area of interest
regarding MBIE’s activity in mind?
While there are a range of interactions with Microsoft – both as a supplier of services, and a major
international technology company – none of the MBIE interactions would constitute co-funding
MBIE1376631
arrangements to date. If we could therefore have the above sought context and clarity around your
request, that would be appreciated.
If you are able to provide this clarification to us on or by 11:59pm Sunday 17 October 2021, that would be
ideal. If we do not hear from you by then, we will proceed with the most obvious interpretation of your
request.
We may still need to communicate with you further upon receiving any replies from you. Please note that
correspondence to and from your FYI.org.nz account will automatically be published on the FYI.org.nz
website for public view. Therefore if you would prefer to talk to one of our staff over the phone and
intend to divulge any of your personal contact details, please consider emailing
[MBIE request email] from a
personal email address rather than your FYI.org.nz account (quoting reference number DOIA 2122-0762)
and a staff member can get in touch.
Extension of Timeframe to Transfer
While we have deemed that your request in its current wording would not be required to be transferred
to another agency, we are aware that any clarification you provide may significantly amend the request.
In that instance, if MBIE did not hold the amended information sought but we believed another agency
did, we woud transfer or partially transfer the request to that agency.
This letter is therefore also to advise you that, in the specific circumstance of an amended request where
a transfer was required, we would wish to extend the 10 working day time limit available to make this
transfer to 29 October 2021, to allow us to conduct that transfer as soon as possible after receiving
direction from you.
This extension may be necessary in that specific circumstance because consultations necessary to make a
decision on the necessity to transfer may be such that that decision could not reasonably be made within
the original 10 working day time limit. In that instance, one consultation would be required before a
transfer could be conducted: we would be consulting with a single MBIE staff member as soon as possible
upon receiving any amendment of yours, to determine whether MBIE or another agency held any
amended information you sought. We have picked that extension date in case you amend your request
any time before the response’s due date.
Please do not hesitate to get back in touch with us should you have any questions regarding any of the
above.
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman. Information about how to
make a complaint is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone 0800 802 602.
Nāku noa, nā
Ministerial Services
Engagement, Communications and Ministerial Services
Ngā Pou o te Taumaru
