4 December 2023
John Luke
[FYI request #24706 email]
REF: DOIA-2324-0328
Tēnā koe John
Official Information Act 1982 request: Conflict of Interest and meeting minutes
Thank you for your email of 11 November 2023 to the Ministry for Ethnic Communities (the
Ministry) requesting the fol owing information under the Official Information Act 1982 (the
Act):
…I noted all [panel] members had conflict for Natraj School of Dance, what is your
internal process of dealing this situation, can you please supply your internal procedure
of dealing conflict. Also how was this situation been dealt with?
May I further request the ful meeting minutes from 22 June 2023 to 11 Nov 2023.…
I note this is a fol ow up request to OIA2324-0253 which was provided to you on
8 November 2023, and referred to conflicting interests for panel members of the Ethnic
Communities Developmental Fund (ECDF).
In response to the first part of your request, in the case that all ECDF members have a
conflict of interest, the Ministry’s Deputy Chief Executive (DCE), System Capability and
Programmes holds the final decision on funding.
In response to the second part of your request, five documents are within scope and
attached to this letter. Please note that the names of individual members of the requesting
organisations have been withheld under section 9(2)(a) of the Act; to protect the privacy of
natural persons. Summary information of these documents can be found in the Document
Schedule at the end of this letter.
As is required by section 9 of the Act, I have considered whether the grounds for withholding
information under section 9(2)(a) of the OIA are outweighed by other considerations which
would make it desirable, in the public interest, to make that information available. In this
instance, I do not consider that to be the case.
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of our response
to your request. Information about how to contact the Ombudsman’s office is available at:
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone: 0800 802 602.
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Please note, due to the public interest in our work, the Ministry may publish responses to
requests for official information on our website, shortly after the response has been sent. If
you have any queries about this, please feel free to contact our Ministerial Services team:
[email address].
Ngā mihi
Edward Firth
Director of Ministerial Services
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Document Schedule
No. Date
Title
Comments
1 26 July 2023
26 July 2023 ECDF panel meeting minutes
Some information withheld
under s9(2)(a)
2 25 August 2023
25 August 2023 ECDF panel meeting minutes
Some information withheld
under s9(2)(a)
3 13 September 2023 13 September 2023 ECDF panel meeting minutes
Released in ful
4 28 September 2023 28 September 2023 ECDF panel meeting minutes
Released in full
5 27 October 2023
27 October 2023 ECDF panel meeting minutes
Some information withheld
under s9(2)(a)
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