Invoicing from members of the EAG
Jake Preston made this Official Information request to Toka Tū Ake – Natural Hazards Commission
The request was partially successful.
From: Jake Preston
Dear Earthquake Commission,
I would like copies of all invoices to EQC from members of the EAG from 15 September 2010 till now (27 February 2019).
Specifically this would include invoices from Dave Brunsdon (Kestrel Group Ltd), Barry Brown (Fraser Thomas Ltd), John Hare ( Holmes Consulting Group Ltd), John Snook (John Snook Consulting Ltd).
Yours faithfully,
Jake Preston
From: Ministerial Services Team
Kia ora Mr Preston,
Thank you for contacting the Earthquake Commission (EQC).
Your Official Information Act Request
I can confirm that the below email has been received and forwarded for the
attention of the appropriate team.
You will receive a response within 20 working days of your request.
Further Information
If you require more information, please visit [1]www.eqc.govt.nz or phone
0800 DAMAGE (0800 326 243) between 7am-9pm Monday-Friday and 9am-5pm on
Saturday.
Please ensure you include your claim number when you enquire.
Yours sincerely,
Katie
Katie Greene | Team Administrator | Government Relations | Risk &
Assurance
Earthquake Commission | Kōmihana Rūwhenua
DDI: 04 830 6104 | EXT: 9916 | Wellington
[2]cid:image001.jpg@01D189BA.FD31D980
From: Official Information Act Requests
Sent: Thursday, 28 February 2019 1:05 p.m.
To: Ministerial Services Team
Subject: FW: Official Information request - Invoicing from members of the
EAG
Hi Team
Can you please respond to the email below.
Thanks
Regards
Carolyn Bate | OIA Advisor | Canterbury and External Affairs
Earthquake Commission | Kōmihana Rūwhenua
0800 DAMAGE | PO Box 311, Wellington 6140
[3]www.eqc.govt.nz
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From: Ministerial Services Team
Dear Mr Preston
Official information request for all invoices to EQC from members of the
EAG.
I refer to your official information request dated 27 February 2019 for;
‘I would like copies of all invoices to EQC from members of the EAG from
15 September 2010 till now (27 February 2019).
Specifically this would include invoices from Dave Brunsdon (Kestrel Group
Ltd), Barry Brown (Fraser Thomas Ltd), John Hare ( Holmes Consulting Group
Ltd), John Snook (John Snook Consulting Ltd).’
Your request as currently framed is showing to be very difficult to meet
without substantial collation or research. This is because these invoices
are located on several different systems depending on their age and
category. Unless your request is amended, we may have to refuse it 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 whether you are prepared to amend or clarify your
request, and if so how. For example, advising a more specific timeframe or
specific invoices.
We would appreciate this clarification of your request so that we can more
accurately focus our search on the information you are seeking. Please
accept our apologies for the delay in requesting this clarification.
Kind Regards,
Bradley Martin | Advisor | Government Relations, Communications &
Stakeholders
Earthquake Commission | Kômihana Rûwhenua
[1]www.eqc.govt.nz
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References
Visible links
1. http://www.eqc.govt.nz/
From: Jake Preston
Dear Ministerial Services Team,
I have requested what should be very simple to provide, and be within your records as you are required to keep invoices as part of your obligations in terms of tax and the public records act 2005. The option is that you provide the invoices as per your obligations under the Official Information Act, alternatively I can make another complaint to the ombudsman, about deliberate obfuscation of an OIA request by EQC, due to the culture within. I will also make a submission to the Inquiry, using this response as another of many responses used by EQC to try to defeat a legal request under the act. If the request is continued to be denied, I will ultimately make the request individually based on month to month invoicing of each and every engineer member of the EAG that EQC has paid. This will result in more than 400 requests for the information I have condensed into one single request. I do not believe that is in the spirit of the act nor is it representative of the cultural change that Sid Miller and Renee Walker are reporting to the Claimants Reference Group.
I expect that EQC will find the information and in the timeframes defined by the act.
Yours sincerely,
Jake Preston
From: Ministerial Services Team
Dear Mr Preston
Please find attached EQC’s response to your request for information.
Kind regards
Bradley Martin | Advisor | Government Relations, Communications &
Stakeholders
Earthquake Commission | Kômihana Rûwhenua
[1]www.eqc.govt.nz
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References
Visible links
1. http://www.eqc.govt.nz/
From: Ministerial Services Team
Dear Mr Preston
Following on from the response letter dated 27 March 2019 I can advise
that the first batch of invoices will be sent to you by 19 April 2019.
Kind regards
Bradley Martin | Advisor | Government Relations, Communications &
Stakeholders
Earthquake Commission | Kōmihana Rūwhenua
[1]www.eqc.govt.nz
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From: Ministerial Services Team
Dear Mr Preston
Please find attached the first batch of material from your request for
information received on 27 February 2019.
Some information has been withheld from these documents under the
following sections of the Official Information Act 1982:
· 9(2)(a) if the withholding of the information is necessary to
protect the privacy of natural persons,
· 9(2)(b)(ii) if the withholding of the information is necessary
to protect information where the making available of the information would
be likely unreasonably to prejudice the commercial position of the person
who supplied or who is the subject of the information.
Yours sincerely
Bradley Martin | Advisor | Government Relations, Communications &
Stakeholders
Earthquake Commission | Kōmihana Rūwhenua
[1]www.eqc.govt.nz
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References
Visible links
1. http://www.eqc.govt.nz/
From: Ministerial Services Team
Dear Mr Preston
Please find attached the second batch of material from your request for
information received on 27 February 2019.
The invoices attached are from Kestrel Group. Some information has been
withheld from these documents under the following sections of the Official
Information Act 1982:
· 9(2)(a) if the withholding of the information is necessary to
protect the privacy of natural persons,
· 9(2)(b)(ii) if the withholding of the information is necessary
to protect information where the making available of the information would
be likely unreasonably to prejudice the commercial position of the person
who supplied or who is the subject of the information.
Please note we are working through extracting the invoices that are within
the scope of your request and you can expect to receive a number of
further batches of information. Once we have made further progress with
sorting through the invoices we will have a clearer picture of the number
of batches required to fulfil your request, however, we expect to have the
next batch to you within the next two weeks. Please note also that due to
the large volume of invoices received from Tonkin and Taylor since 2010,
covering a wide variety of work (including claim specific invoices), these
have been excluded from our collation process and therefore will not be
part of the material released to you.
Yours sincerely
Bradley Martin | Advisor | Government Relations, Communications &
Stakeholders
Earthquake Commission | Kōmihana Rūwhenua
[1]www.eqc.govt.nz
[2]cid:image001.jpg@01D189A0.F72206B0
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References
Visible links
1. http://www.eqc.govt.nz/
From: Ministerial Services Team
Dear Mr Preston
Please find attached the third batch of material from your request for
information received on 27 February 2019.
Some information has been withheld from these documents under the
following sections of the Official Information Act 1982:
· 9(2)(a) if the withholding of the information is necessary to
protect the privacy of natural persons,
· 9(2)(b)(ii) if the withholding of the information is necessary
to protect information where the making available of the information would
be likely unreasonably to prejudice the commercial position of the person
who supplied or who is the subject of the information.
Yours sincerely
Bradley Martin | Advisor | Government Relations, Communications &
Stakeholders
Earthquake Commission | Kōmihana Rūwhenua
[1]www.eqc.govt.nz
[2]cid:image001.jpg@01D189A0.F72206B0
show quoted sections
References
Visible links
1. http://www.eqc.govt.nz/
From: Ministerial Services Team
Dear Mr Preston
Please find attached the next batch of material from your request for
information received on 27 February 2019.
Some information has been withheld from these documents under the
following sections of the Official Information Act 1982:
· 9(2)(a) if the withholding of the information is necessary to
protect the privacy of natural persons,
· 9(2)(b)(ii) if the withholding of the information is necessary
to protect information where the making available of the information would
be likely unreasonably to prejudice the commercial position of the person
who supplied or who is the subject of the information.
Yours sincerely
Bradley Martin | Advisor | Government Relations, Communications &
Stakeholders
Earthquake Commission | Kōmihana Rūwhenua
[1]www.eqc.govt.nz
[2]cid:image001.jpg@01D189A0.F72206B0
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References
Visible links
1. http://www.eqc.govt.nz/
From: Ministerial Services Team
Dear Mr Preston
Please find attached the final batch of invoices from your request for
information received on 27 February 2019.
Some information has been withheld from these documents under the
following sections of the Official Information Act 1982:
· 9(2)(a) if the withholding of the information is necessary to
protect the privacy of natural persons,
· 9(2)(b)(ii) if the withholding of the information is necessary
to protect information where the making available of the information would
be likely unreasonably to prejudice the commercial position of the person
who supplied or who is the subject of the information.
EQC has made every effort to retrieve all of the invoices that fall within
the scope of your request, and our searches have included electronic and
archived material. From the information available to us, we are confident
that all relevant invoices have been identified and provided to you, with
the exception of invoices from Tonkin and Taylor which, as we advised you
on 9 May 2019 were excluded from the search.
This response completes your request for information. You have the right
to ask the Ombudsman to investigate and review my decision. The Ombudsman
can be contacted at PO Box 10 152, Wellington 6143, or on Freephone 0800
802 602, or at [1]http://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz.
Yours sincerely
Bradley Martin | Advisor | Government Relations, Communications &
Stakeholders
Earthquake Commission | Kōmihana Rūwhenua
[2]www.eqc.govt.nz
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References
Visible links
1. http://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/
2. http://www.eqc.govt.nz/
Things to do with this request
- Add an annotation (to help the requester or others)
- Download a zip file of all correspondence