Dear Unitec Institute of Technology,

Under the OIA and/or LGOIMA, I request the following information.

Section A
1. Any reports, memoranda, or correspondence received by the Chief Executive of Unitec, relating to the outsourcing of services to Concentrix, in the period 1 May 2015-10 November 2015.
2. Any minutes of meetings attended by the Chief Executive of Unitec, and in which the outsourcing of services to Concentrix was discussed, in the period 1 May 2015-10 November 2015.

Section B
1. Any reports, memoranda, or correspondence received by the Executive Director: Organisational Development, relating to the outsourcing of services to Concentrix, in the period 1 May 2015-10 November 2015.
2. Any minutes of meetings attended by the Executive Director: Organisational Development, and in which the outsourcing of services to Concentrix was discussed, in the period 1 May 2015-10 November 2015.

Section C
1. Any legal opinion produced internally or contracted for relating to the legality of sole-source provision of services by Unitec
2. Any correspondence between Unitec staff relating to the response to the earlier TIASA request for information
3. Any correspondence between Unitec and Audit NZ relating to the outsourcing of services to Concentrix

In the interest of ensuring a rapid response (which given your role as a tertiary institution, supportive of freedom of information), please remove all financial/cost information to avoid commercially sensitive information, remove all personal names where that would cause a breach of privacy, and provide the information in batches (Section A first) if this would make it easier.

Yours faithfully,

Vincent Reid

Dear Unitec Institute of Technology,

Further to my OIA request of 26 November, I have not received a receipt. As it is now 10 working days, and a full response is required within 20, I should appreciate such at your earliest convenience

Yours faithfully,

Vincent Reid

Dear Richard Browning,

I am unsure as to how you arrived at a figure of 75 hours of compilation time. Every email system I know about has a search functionality and usually an archival function. I expect your senior managers have some sort of diary management system, whether via a personal assistant or secretary, who categorises meetings. C1-3 in particular should be ready at hand; the issue is A1-3 and B1-3, which relate to two individuals only. I have requested much larger quantities of information from other government agencies and never been given such an absurd estimate of the collation time required.

I am also rather concerned that a public sector organisation (which Unitec is) is attempting to conceal information of great public interest (that is, the use of public moneys for the purpose of funding a private company) through mention of the cost of collating the information. Unitec is an educational institute and as such has a duty to support the free and frank dissemination of information and to allow those who wish to act as the critic and conscience of society to do so. I am also aware that you provided information to TIASA free of charge.

I might suggest that given that public moneys are involved, Unitec might aspire to the pre-emptive release of information of this nature, rather than conceal it from the taxpayers who fund it.

However, in the interests of progressing this request, I will narrow my request (changes in CAPS) to:

1. Any reports, memoranda, or correspondence received by the Chief
Executive of Unitec (VIA EMAIL), relating to the outsourcing of services to
Concentrix, in the period 1 May 2015-10 November 2015.
2. Any minutes of meetings attended by the Chief Executive of
Unitec, and in which the outsourcing of services to Concentrix was
discussed, in the period 1 May 2015-10 November 2015.
3. Any legal opinion produced internally or contracted for relating
to the legality of sole-source provision of services by Unitec

This would be a quick task; 3. would be familiar to you in your role; 1. would require an email search for the keywords Concentrix and the dates above; 2. is the only task where more detailed efforts would be required and even then, a calendar search with the keyword "Concentrix" would identify the relevant meetings.

Yours sincerely,

Vincent Reid

Dear Richard Browning,

I have read your latest request for costs. Tertiary institutes like Unitec are reliant on the free flow of information. Researchers from Unitec constantly request information from government departments for the purpose of research and are not charged. For Unitec to refuse the public release of information unless money is paid is entirely inappropriate. If this were to become common practice, all of your research involving government departments would be crippled.

There is a commonly understood principle in the public sector that OIA requests will not be charged unless they are used for the purpose of profit. The purpose of this request is research. I am not a journalist nor will I profit from this information.

Information held by Unitec is not private information. It is public information that we as New Zealanders have a right to.

I believe that you are being deliberately obstructive on this request. As Unitec's legal counsel (per your signature), you would be familiar with item 3. "Any legal opinion produced internally or contracted for relating to the legality of sole-source provision of services by Unitec." You could produce this with zero work required, and you could have provided this while distilling down the other parts of the request.

I also find it extremely unlikely that you do not have a filing structure for memoranda and reports relating to the Concentrix deal, and need to search all email databases.

In the interests of progressing this request, I will distill it further. I hereby request:
1. Any legal opinion relating to the legality of sole-source provision of services by Unitec
2. The agenda of all senior leadership/executive leadership/senior management meetings (I am unsure of the exact term, but whichever meeting is held between the most senior executives on a regular basis) for the period 1 May 2015-15 December 2015;
3. The agenda of all Unitec council meetings for the same period;
4. The date and mechanism whereby the outsourcing to Concentrix was formally approved (i.e. 1 June, at a meeting of the executive)
5. The papers considered at the event noted in item 4 (i.e. the decision-paper)

None of this involves substantial searching of databases. You are legally required to keep items 2 and 3. You will be familiar with item 1. 4 and 5 will be familiar to you given your noted responsibility for contracts.

By providing me this material, I will be better able to narrow down further requests, thus reducing the workload for Unitec.

Yours sincerely,

Vincent Reid

Dear Richard Browning,

Thank you for your most recent response. I look forward to receiving the information requested.

Yours sincerely,

Vincent Reid

Dear Richard Browning,

Many thanks for the documentation attached. I shall review it and if I have further, more specific requests, I shall endeavour to make them in a manner that minimises the time and effort required of Unitec.

Yours sincerely,

Vincent Reid

Dear Richard Browning,

I have managed to review the documents provided. I have the following requests:

1. Minutes of Executive Leadership Team meetings 25/6/15 and 17/7/15 including any papers provided to ELT relating to student services
2. Minutes of Council meeting 25/5/15 and 27/7/15 including any papers provided to ELT relating to student services
3. Minutes of all Student Services Blueprint Project Steering Group meetings

Yours sincerely,

Vincent Reid

Dear Richard Browning,

My request of 13/4/2016 for the following has not been replied to - this is well beyond the legislatively required timeframes.

1. Minutes of Executive Leadership Team meetings 25/6/15 and
17/7/15 including any papers provided to ELT relating to student
services
2. Minutes of Council meeting 25/5/15 and 27/7/15 including any
papers provided to ELT relating to student services
3. Minutes of all Student Services Blueprint Project Steering Group
meetings

Yours sincerely,

Vincent Reid

Dear Richard Browning,

We have now hit 20 working days for this request. Given its focus and specificity I would have assumed a more rapid response.

Yours sincerely,

Vincent Reid