Dear Sarah

 

Please find attached acknowledgement to your OIA request.

 

Thank you.

 

Warm Regards,

Apurva Mahire | Ministerial Advisor| The Treasury- Kaitohutohu Kaupapa
Rawa

| [1][email address]

   

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Kia Ora Sarah

Thank you for your email.

Treasury does not have any record of a phone conversation that has taken place between yourself and any Treasury staff. Are you able to confirm the name of the staff member you recall speaking with please?

As per our records your OIA request is due for a response on the 12th of December. An extension letter was sent out to you on the 5th of October 2018 to advise you of the 30 working day extension to your request.

Thank you.

Warm Regards,

Apurva Mahire | Ministerial Advisor| The Treasury- Kaitohutohu Kaupapa Rawa
[email address]
Please note I work from home on Tuesdays.
   
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[IN-CONFIDENCE]

-----Original Message-----
From: sarahjanenz [mailto:[FYI request #8794 email]]
Sent: Thursday, 29 November 2018 7:32 a.m.
To: Apurva Mahire [TSY] <[email address]>
Subject: Re: Official Information Act Request Acknowledgement

Dear Apurva Mahire [TSY],

Further to your response and our subsequent phone discussion where i advised you of my personal details, I note that this request is now long overdue. Please respond as required by law. Please also provide the reason for your very long delay.

Yours sincerely,
Sarah Jane

-----Original Message-----

Dear Sarah

 

Please find attached acknowledgement to your OIA request.

 

Thank you.

 

Warm Regards,

Apurva Mahire | Ministerial Advisor| The Treasury- Kaitohutohu Kaupapa Rawa

| [1][email address]

   

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE

The information in this email is confidential to the Treasury, intended only for the addressee(s), and may also be legally privileged. If you are not an intended addressee:

a. please immediately delete this email and notify the Treasury by return email or telephone (64 4 472 2733);

b. any use, dissemination or copying of this email is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful.

[IN-CONFIDENCE]

 

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-------------------------------------------------------------------
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FYI request #8794 email]

Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
https://fyi.org.nz/help/officers

If you find this service useful as an Official Information officer, please ask your web manager to link to us from your organisation's OIA or LGOIMA page.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

hide quoted sections

Hi Sarah Jane,

Thank you for your email. We did send an extension letter but it was sent to the incorrect email address it was sent to '[email address]' instead of [FOI #8794 email] . Those speech marks made all the difference between you receiving the extension letter and not receiving the extension letter. We apologies for this, but it is a genuine human error (I don't know exactly how it happened but I imagine it may have happened while cutting and pasting your email address). The extension was required because of the amount of work required to prepare the response.

As for the phone call my staff are genuinely stumped because it is our general practice to note any phone calls we have with requesters (more than that, we go back to requesters to confirm with emails that our notes of the phone call are a fair recollection of the call), and we don't have any notes in our records. However, it may not have happened in this case.

Given the size of the request we are working towards the extension date of 12 December 2018 (we fully acknowledge you may not have received the extension but this is the timeframe we are working to given the size of the request).

Finally, I take the approach of acknowledging when we didn't get something right, as happened in this case. You are fully in your rights to ask the Ombudsman to investigate but the explanation I have provided you would be the exact same one I have provided you. If you have any questions or concerns do not hesitate to contact me either by email or phone.

Yours sincerely,
David Hammond

David Hammond | Acting Team Leader | Ministerial Advisory Service |The Treasury - Te Kaitohutohu Kaupapa Rawa | 04 917 6099 |
[email address]
[IN-CONFIDENCE]

                  
                                                           
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Hi Sarah,

-----Original Message-----
From: sarahjanenz [mailto:[FOI #8794 email]]
Sent: Thursday, 29 November 2018 4:08 p.m.
To: Apurva Mahire [TSY] <[email address]>
Subject: RE: Official Information Act Request Acknowledgement

Dear Apurva Mahire [TSY],

I spoke to you on the 4th of October and provided you with my home address.

During that call I advised you that i did not want any correspondence sent to me by post and that all replies should be sent via FYI.org. I further advised that the only reason i had called rather than replying through this site was that I did not want my personal details published on the internet. You agreed to respond to me via FYI.org.

You state that you wrote to me on 5 October. That response has not been sent to FYI.org. Nor have I received anything through the post. As such I do not believe the extension you claim to have advised to be valid. In any event, the idea that it would take 10 weeks to reply to a clear request about routine processes that you run annually and regard so highly that you have entered and indeed won awards for falls well short of the grounds for an extension set out in section 15(A) of the Official Information Act and is patently at odds with your obligation to respond as soon as reasonably practicable. I would invite you to reconsider this decision and expressly reserve my rights to raise this with the Ombudsman under section 28(3) of the Act.

Finally I note that it is wholly illogical that you were able to “send out” a reply to me if you had not already spoken to me, as I only provided you with my address details by phone.

I look forward to an expedited response via this website.

Yours sincerely,
Sarah Jane

-----Original Message-----

Kia Ora Sarah

Thank you for your email.

Treasury does not have any record of a phone conversation that has taken place between yourself and any Treasury staff. Are you able to confirm the name of the staff member you recall speaking with please?

As per our records your OIA request is due for a response on the 12th of December. An extension letter was sent out to you on the 5th of October 2018 to advise you of the 30 working day extension to your request.

Thank you.

Warm Regards,

Apurva Mahire | Ministerial Advisor| The Treasury- Kaitohutohu Kaupapa Rawa [email address] Please note I work from home on Tuesdays.
   
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE
The information in this email is confidential to the Treasury, intended only for the addressee(s), and may also be legally privileged. If you are not an intended addressee:
a. please immediately delete this email and notify the Treasury by return email or telephone (64 4 472 2733); b. any use, dissemination or copying of this email is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful.
[IN-CONFIDENCE]

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FOI #8794 email]

Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
https://fyi.org.nz/help/officers

If you find this service useful as an Official Information officer, please ask your web manager to link to us from your organisation's OIA or LGOIMA page.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

hide quoted sections

Kia Ora Sarah

 

Please find attached response to your OIA request.

 

Thank you.

 

Warm Regards,

Apurva Mahire | Ministerial Advisor| The Treasury- Kaitohutohu Kaupapa
Rawa

 

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE

The information in this email is confidential to the Treasury, intended
only for the addressee(s), and may also be legally privileged. If you are
not an intended addressee:

a. please immediately delete this email and notify the Treasury by return
email or telephone (64 4 472 2733);

b. any use, dissemination or copying of this email is strictly prohibited
and may be unlawful.

[IN-CONFIDENCE]

 

Goof afternoon

Acknowledgement of receipt of your OIA request is attached.

 

 

Regards

 

Jean McDowall | Contractor | Ministerial Advisory Service |The Treasury -
Te Kaitohutohu Kaupapa Rawa

[email address]

[IN-CONFIDENCE]

 

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[IN-CONFIDENCE]

 

Good morning

Acknowledgement of receipt of your OIA request is attached.

 

 

Regards

 

Jean McDowall | Contractor | Ministerial Advisory Service |The Treasury -
Te Kaitohutohu Kaupapa Rawa

[1][email address]

[IN-CONFIDENCE]

 

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Good afternoon Sarah Jane

A response to your OIA request is attached.

 

Regards

 

Jean McDowall | Contractor | Ministerial Advisory Service |The Treasury -
Te Kaitohutohu Kaupapa Rawa | 04 890 7227 |

[email address]

[IN-CONFIDENCE]

 

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Good afternoon

Correspondence about your OIA request is attached.

 

Regards

 

 

Jean McDowall | Ministerial Advisor| Te Tai Ôhanga – The Treasury

Tel: +64 4 890 7227 | Mobile: +64 N/A | Email/IM:
[email address]

Visit us online at [1]https://treasury.govt.nz/ and follow us on
[2]Twitter, [3]LinkedIn and [4]Instagram

 

[IN-CONFIDENCE]

                                                       

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[UNCLASSIFIED]

 

Dear Sarah Jane,

 

I am writing in response to your request for official information below:

 

This is a most disappointing reply, and suggests a high level of
disingenuity on the part of the Treasury especially in regards to the
retrofitting of a reason to delay responding to my request.

 

I now further request:

- All official information relationg to the reasons why "Candy" told Laura
Baird to "push for a 30 day extension"

- All information in the documents you provided that have been redacted on
the grounds they were not relevant to my request I would like these points
to be responded to with urgency.

 

Additionally I request (under normal timeframes) an itemised list of all
OIAs that the Treasury HR has been responsible for responding to in the
last three years, including:

- the subject of the request

- the length of time (in working days) it took for a substantive response
to be provided to the requestor

- the reasons given for any extension and all official information that
relates in any way to the extension

- whether or not you received any response following that indicating that
the requestor was satisfied with the response; and

- Whether or not you received any response following that indicating that
the requestor was not satisfied with the response.

I request that this be provided in table form and that a copy of the
substantive response be included behind that table

 

Please note that your accusation of “retrofitting of a reason to delay
responding to my request” is both inaccurate and offensive. However, the
Office of the Ombudsman is best placed to investigate these very serious
concerns raised by you and I encourage you to lay a complaint with the
Office of the Ombudsman so they can fully investigate The Treasury’s
handling of your OIA requests. The Office of the Ombudsman can be reached
on 0800 802 602 or [1][email address] in order to lay a
complaint. Furthermore, your use of quotation marks around Candy Gray’s
name also carries offensive implications.

 

 

1.       The Treasury is able to respond to the first part of your request
within the normal timeframes under the Official Information Act:

- All official information relating to the reasons why "Candy" told Laura
Baird to "push for a 30 day extension"

- All information in the documents you provided that have been redacted on
the grounds they were not relevant to my request

 

2.       However the second part of your request covers a large amount of
information:

…an itemised list of all OIAs that the Treasury HR has been responsible
for responding to in the last three years, including:

- the subject of the request

- the length of time (in working days) it took for a substantive response
to be provided to the requestor

- the reasons given for any extension and all official information that
relates in any way to the extension

- whether or not you received any response following that indicating that
the requestor was satisfied with the response; and

- Whether or not you received any response following that indicating that
the requestor was not satisfied with the response.

I request that this be provided in table form and that a copy of the
substantive response be included behind that table

 

Your request as currently framed will be very difficult to meet without
substantial collation or research. Among other considerations, locating
relevant documents (including  emails between Treasury staff) relating to
“the reasons given for any extension and all official information that
relates in any way to the extension

- whether or not you received any response following that indicating that
the requestor was satisfied with the response; and

- Whether or not you received any response following that indicating that
the requestor was not satisfied with the response” will require searching
through many thousands of documents to identify material relevant to your
request.

I invite you to consider refining your request. For example, we could give
you a list of OIAs the Treasury HR team has been responsible for over the
last three years, and how many of them were extended.

 

Unless your request is amended, we may have to consider charging for time
spent by staff searching for relevant material, extracting and collating,
copying, transcribing and supervising access where the total time involved
is in excess of one hour.  

 

The charge at the rates, and for the activities, specified in the
Government’s Charging guidelines after the first hour are:

- an initial charge of $38 for the first chargeable half hour or part

thereof; and

- then $38 for each additional half hour or part thereof.

 

Alternatively, we may have to refuse your request under section [18(f) of
the OIA, which applies where the information cannot be made available
without substantial collation or research.

 

Please let us know before 7 May 2019 whether you are prepared to amend or
clarify your request and, if so, how. Please note, if you do amend or
clarify your request, this will be considered to be a new request for the
purpose of calculating the maximum statutory timeframe for a response—see
section 15(1AA) of the OIA.

 

As I mentioned earlier, if you are unhappy with the length of time taken
to respond to your original request, or with any other aspects of the
Treasury’s decisions on that or subsequent requests, the appropriate
course of action is to contact the Ombudsman, who will fully investigate
your concerns.

 

Yours sincerely,

David Hammond

 

 

 

David Hammond (he/him) | Team Leader Ministerial Advisory Service | Te Tai
Ôhanga – The Treasury

Tel: +64 4 917 6099 | Email/IM: [email address]

Visit us online at [2]https://treasury.govt.nz/ and follow us on
[3]Twitter, [4]LinkedIn and [5]Instagram

 

 

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hide quoted sections

Good afternoon

A response to your OIA request is attached.

 

 

Regards

 

 

Jean McDowall | Ministerial Advisor | Te Tai Ôhanga – The Treasury

Email/IM: [email address]

Visit us online at [1]https://treasury.govt.nz/ and follow us on
[2]Twitter, [3]LinkedIn and [4]Instagram

[IN-CONFIDENCE]

 

                                                           

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