Status of the EMIS Project
Alan Thompson made this Official Information request to Minister of Civil Defence
The request was successful.
From: Alan Thompson
Dear Minister of Civil Defence,
In January 2010 the then Minister for Civil Fence (Hon John Carter) announced that E-Sponder will supply an electronic emergency management information system (EMIS) for use in the National Crisis Management Centre (NCMC) and by civil defence authorities. He also advised that EMIS was to be hosted by the Min CD&EM and would be rolled out by Mid 2010. A funding package of $2.8 million was approved for three NCMC projects which include EMIS, upgraded communications and video conferencing.
EMIS was not rolled out by mid 2010, it was not rolled out at the time of the Sept 2010 Canterbury Earthquakes and, as noted in the formal review of the event, nor was it rolled out by the time of the Feb 2011 earthquake response.
It is understood that the system is still only implemented by only a few CD regions and some of those who have implemented the system have done so only in a limited capability. Others have rejected the system as they have found that it does not meet their requirements and/or is too difficult to use.
Question 1.
Four years on from the original roll out date:
(a) How many are sixteen Civil Defence regions, how many does the Ministry consider to be fully trained and competent in the use of EMIS in the event of a local, regional or national CD emergency (ie, shared information, communications and emergency management); and
(b) What is the revised date by which the Ministry now plans to have the system fully implemented nationally as per the original plan?
Question 2.
The EMIS project is now some 4 years past its proposed roll out date of mid 2010:
(a) What is the Ministry’s total spend to date on the project to customise E-Sponder and implement this system as EMIS; and
(b) What is the Ministry’s budget to complete the national roll out of EMIS to all 16 regions including an estimate of what they are expected to contribute to their training cost?
Question 3.
In a reply to a written question from the Hon Peter Dunne dated 18 March 2013 the Minister of Civil Defence (the Hon Nikki Kaye) advised that Wellington (as a CD region) was trained in EMIS but had not then used it for any emergencies as “none had warranted it”.
(a) Since March 2013 has Wellington in conjunction with the NCMC had any significant CD event (eg, the severe earthquake of July 2013) and utilised EMIS in the management the emergency (eg supporting Operations, Planning/Intell, Logistics and Welfare);
(b) What formal and ongoing exercising has the Ministry undertaken in conjunction with WREMO and the NCMC that tests both parties capability and competency in the use of the system; and
(c) Does the Ministry consider that WREMO as an organisation is fully trained and competent in the use of EMIS in the event of a local, regional or national civil defence emergency?
Question 4.
In accordance with best practice for public sector IT projects (ref SSC and Audit Office published guidelines) the EMIS project will have been subject to regular reviews and audits, particularly given the ongoing delays, missed deadlines and scope creep.
(a) A copy of the most recent formal Project Review/Audit is requested.
Yours faithfully,
Alan Thompson
Lower Hutt
From: C Tremain (MIN)
Minister of Civil Defence
Chris Tremain is no longer Minister of Internal Affairs and Local
Government, nor Associate Minister of Tourism. He will continue working as
a Member of Parliament until the September 2014 elections and can be
reached at the following address: [1][email address]
For a list of current Ministers please consult the Beehive website
[2]http://www.beehive.govt.nz/
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1. mailto:[email address]
2. http://www.beehive.govt.nz/
From: Alan Thompson
Dear Minister of Civil Defence,
Correction:
Question 1.
Four years on from the original roll out date:
(a) Of the sixteen Civil Defence regions, how many does the Ministry consider to be fully trained and competent in the use of EMIS in the event of a local, regional or national CD emergency (ie, shared information, communications and emergency management); and
Yours faithfully,
Alan Thompson
Lower Hutt
Sent request to Minister of Civil Defence again, using a new contact address.
Sent a follow up to Minister of Civil Defence again, using a new contact address.
From: N Kaye
Minister of Civil Defence
Thank you for contacting the office of Hon Nikki Kaye. The Minister
receives a high volume of correspondence and will respond to you as soon
as possible.
Thank you once again for your message,
Kind regards,
Office of Hon Nikki Kaye
T: 04 817 8227
[1][Minister of Civil Defence request email]
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1. mailto:[Minister of Civil Defence request email]
From: N Kaye
Minister of Civil Defence
Thank you for contacting the office of Hon Nikki Kaye. The Minister
receives a high volume of correspondence and will respond to you as soon
as possible.
Thank you once again for your message,
Kind regards,
Office of Hon Nikki Kaye
T: 04 817 8227
[1][Minister of Civil Defence request email]
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1. mailto:[Minister of Civil Defence request email]
From: Alan Thompson
The Hon Nikki Kaye
Minister for Civil Defence
On August 14th I lodged with your office a request for information under the OIA. Under the Act, you are required to provide a response "within 20 working days".
I would like to remind you that today (the 10th of Sept) is the 20th working day since I logged my request.
Yours sincerely,
Alan Thompson
Lower Hutt
From: N Kaye
Minister of Civil Defence
Thank you for contacting the office of Hon Nikki Kaye. The Minister
receives a high volume of correspondence and will respond to you as soon
as possible.
Thank you once again for your message,
Kind regards,
Office of Hon Nikki Kaye
T: 04 817 8227
[1][Minister of Civil Defence request email]
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1. mailto:[Minister of Civil Defence request email]
From: Alan Thompson
Dear Minister,
I regret to advise that a response to my OIA was not received within the 20 working days requirement.
I did email your Office on the 10th of Sept to remind you that it was due by the next day. I made a phone call to your Office on the 12 of Sept to advise that a response was now overdue. Celia took my details and undertook to get back to me. Nothing further was heard.
In accordance with due process I have now put this matter into the hands of the Ombudsman in the form of an official complaint. I now trust that the Ombudsman will be able to exercise their influence to get a response to my OIA.
I regret that I had to follow this process and would have preferred that your Office (and your Officials) had met the requirements of the OI Act.
Yours sincerely,
Alan Thompson
Lower Hutt
From: N Kaye
Minister of Civil Defence
Thank you for contacting the office of Hon Nikki Kaye. The Minister
receives a high volume of correspondence and will respond to you as soon
as possible.
Thank you once again for your message,
Kind regards,
Office of Hon Nikki Kaye
T: 04 817 8227
[1][Minister of Civil Defence request email]
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1. mailto:[Minister of Civil Defence request email]
From: Celia Horner
Minister of Civil Defence
Dear Alan
Thank you for your email and my apologies for not replying to you earlier, following our phone call.
As you are aware the general election takes place this coming Saturday and this has meant that unfortunately the Minister has just not had the opportunity to sign out your request.
Please be assured, however, while there has been a delay, you will certainly get a response to your OIA Request as quickly as possible.
Regards
Celia
Celia Horner | Senior Private Secretary
Hon Nikki Kaye | Minister for Food Safety | Minister of Civil Defence | Minister of Youth Affairs
Associate Minister of Education | Associate Minister of Immigration
Parliament Buildings, PO Box 18041, Wellington 6160, New Zealand
T: 04 817 8343 | F: 04 817 6537 | [mobile number].
E:[email address]
www.nikkikaye.co.nz | www.beehive.govt.nz
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From: Alan Thompson
Dear Celia,
This matter is now in the hands of the Ombudsman. I will leave it to them to determine and advise as to whether there are any provisions in the OI Act that grant an exemption to the requirement to respond within 20 working days if it is an election year.
Yours sincerely,
Alan Thompson
From: Marika Luiso
Minister of Civil Defence
Dear Mr Thompson
On behalf of Hon Nikki Kaye, Minister of Civil Defence, attached please
find a response to your OIA request dated 14 August 2014. Please do not
hesitate to contact me if you have any problems opening the attachment.
Sincerely
Marika Luiso
Marika Luiso | Private Secretary (Civil Defence)
Hon Nikki Kaye | Minister of Civil Defence
Parliament Buildings, PO Box 18041, Wellington 6160, New Zealand
T: 04 817 9878 | M: 027 224 5211
E: [1][email address]
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1. mailto:[email address]
From: Alan Thompson
The Hon Nikki Kaye
Minster of CD
Dear Ms Kaye,
Thank you for the belated response to my OIA re EMIS. I note that this was received well outside the "within 20 working days" requirement. As your office was not able to provide a reasonable reason for the delay this matter remains with the Office of the Ombudsman.
In question 1(b) I asked "how many of the 16 regions does the Ministry consider to be fully trained and competent in the use of EMIS.
Your (Officials) response was lengthy and it was interesting but did not answer my question. I would like to request that you provide me an answer to this specific question.
Yours sincerely,
Alan Thompson
From: Marika Luiso
Minister of Civil Defence
Dear Mr Thompson
On behalf of Hon Nikki Kaye, Minister of Civil Defence, thank you for your email below. As the question you have raised requests the Ministry to provide an answer, MCDEM will be responding to you directly. If you wish to discuss this with MCDEM, you can contact David Coetzee, Manager Capability and Operations, at [email address].
Sincerely
Marika Luiso
Marika Luiso | Private Secretary (Civil Defence)
Hon Nikki Kaye | Minister of Civil Defence
Parliament Buildings, PO Box 18041, Wellington 6160, New Zealand
T: 04 817 9878 | M: 027 224 5211
E: [email address]
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From: David Coetzee [DPMC]
Dear Alan,
The Minister’s office referred your follow-up on the question “Of the
sixteen Civil Defence regions, how many does the Ministry consider to be
fully trained and competent in the use of EMIS in the event of a local,
regional or national CD emergency (ie, shared information, communications
and emergency management)” to MCDEM.
In addition to the answer provided by the Minister, the following:
MCDEM does not have any measure to assess when a CDEM Group is “fully
trained and competent” in the use of EMIS, nor does MCDEM have a statutory
requirement to conduct such assessments. As you probably know EMIS
consists of many components and the level of uptake of the range of
components differs among Groups. However we regard InfoPath forms,
Messaging & Tasking and the Welfare Registration & Inquiry components as
the core parts of the system. MCDEM understands many CDEM Groups have
undertaken training on these components. On that basis, we consider
thirteen of the sixteen CDEM Groups to be sufficiently competent to use
these components.
Regards,
David Coetzee | Manager, Capability & Operations
Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management | Te Râkau Whakamarumaru
Direct Dial: +64 4 817 8580 | Extn: 8580 | Mobile: +64 27 442 1236
Email: [1][email address]
Level 17, Bowen House, Parliament Buildings | PO Box 5010, Wellington
6145, New Zealand |
[2]www.civildefence.govt.nz
The Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management is a business unit of
the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
[3]http://www.dia.govt.nz/diawebsite.nsf/Fi...
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From: David Coetzee [DPMC]
Alan,
Tane Woodley from MCDEM provided a brief answer to Nick on 3 October in
reply to his similar question sent to our web address. To expand on the
latter as well as the comments offered in your email, the following:
In CIMS 2^nd Edition resource management (including tracking) is assigned
to Logistics. Operations advise Logistics and the Controller on resource
needs/priorities and will obviously request resources in the planning and
execution of response tasks (via Logistics) - which is not dissimilar to
the role of Operations in relation to resources in CIMS 1^st Edition.
CIMS 1^st Edition provided for a Resources Unit under
Planning/Intelligence with the responsibility of maintaining records about
the location and deployment of resources. However, under CIMS 1^st
Edition Logistics were still responsible for providing resources (one
assumes that would include tracking of those being procured or are
en-route). This meant that resource tracking/management was spread across
two functions and the question could rightfully be asked whether this
could be simplified, and whether tracking of deployed resources is best
placed with Planning, Intelligence (or ‘Planning/Intelligence’ when they
are combined), or with Logistics. This question was even more relevant
considering the need to lift the game on the Planning front in CIMS 2^nd
Edition (a recommendation of the Chch response review), whilst resource
tracking has little to do with the Planning discipline as such, and all
functions provide input to the Planning and Intelligence functions anyway
which covers off their interests in this regard.
Interpreting the views of the CIMS Steering Group, from these perspectives
it seemed more logical for all resource management (including tracking) to
sit with Logistics and the 2^nd Edition subsequently provides more clarity
and simplification in this regard. However we acknowledge we are still
lacking a proper reference document that describes the detail involved in
resource management (a weakness also pointed out by the Christchurch
response review). As CIMS is obviously not the place to go into that
detail, MCDEM is in the process of developing a Logistics Guideline for
CDEM that should serve useful for other agencies too.
In relation to some of your other remarks below, I’d like to offer the
following reply:
· The description of ‘Resource Coordination’ in the Principle
statement should be read as that- a high level ‘principle’ rather than a
‘how to’. In practice that will indeed translate to the IMT (including
agencies) discussing sources as you suggest, with the lead agency
appointed Controller making decisions and monitoring resource information.
· It seems you hold MCDEM accountable for the CIMS 2^nd Edition
while the document is actually owned by the CIMS Steering Committee,
consisting of 14 agencies. MCDEM was appointed to chair the Steering Group
by the 14 agencies collectively, and subsequently also provided the ‘pen’
for the revision (in agreement with the Steering Group). But the content
of the 2^nd Edition is the result of due consideration and debate by the
Steering Group who eventually reached an overwhelming majority consensus
on it.
The 2^nd Edition will be reviewed again in 5 years (4.5 years from where
we’re at now). We will then have another chance to look at any
improvements which will no doubt be identified over time. Meanwhile I hope
this helps in replying to your questions/comments.
Regards
David Coetzee
Manager, Capability & Operations
MCDEM
From: Alan Thompson [mailto:[email address]]
Sent: Thursday, 9 October 2014 1:15 p.m.
To: David Coetzee [DPMC]
Subject: CIMS 2nd Edition
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Luke C left an annotation ()
Alan
There is no provision to extend the request once the 20 workind day limit has ended.
The fact is that the Minister's office is happy to provide the information to you. I don't think you should refuse them to do this on the basis that your complaint is before the Ombudsman. The Ombudsman would probably consider that you are impeding the resolution of your request.
If I was you, I would ring Celia Horner and ask that you are happy for them to provide the information and ask another person sign out the request on behalf of the Minister (e.g. PP Celia Horner) which would be acceptable if this request was not for sensitive information.
Then you should email the Ombudsman and rescind your complaint. They have hundreds on the books to deal with.
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