If not delivered return to PO Box 7820 Canberra BC ACT 2610
27 April 2016
Mr James Smith
Right to Know
Our reference: LEX 18674
By email:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear
Mr Smith
Your Freedom of Information Request – Acknowledgement and Assessment of Charges
1. I refer to your request dated 31 March 2016 and received by the Department of Human
Services (the
department) on the same date, for access under the
Freedom of Information Act
1982 (the
FOI Act) to the following:
'I request any relevant document(s) which summarise misconduct by DHS staff. In particular,
matters concerning unauthorised access to DHS client records and misuse of
Commonwealth resources.
I would like to see the broad spectrum of offences committed, and what the resulting
consequences were for staff generally, in addition to the types of offences, and the number
of occurrences of each offence.
If such a document exists which covers any, or all, of these matters for a recent, full
financial-year period (eg, 2014-15), that will be sufficient for my purposes.’
2. On 15 April 2016 the department acknowledged your request (LEX 18363) and provided you
with links to publicly available information.
New FOI Request
3. You provided a response on the same date and made a further request for information. The
department proposes to treat your further additional request as a new FOI request under the
FOI Act for:
‘I refer to Table A in HS107. In that table, you broadly summarise the offences by each
element of the APS Code of Conduct.
Is it possible to get a breakdown of the following breaches. I would like to see which kinds of
behaviours led to the breach. A short paragraph, written in general terms, would be sufficient
for my purposes:
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(s. 13(8)) An APS employee must use Commonwealth resources in a proper manner and for
a proper purpose. (7 breaches)
(s. 13(10)) An APS employee must not improperly use inside information or the employee’s
duties, status, power or authority:
(a) to gain, or seek to gain, a benefit or an advantage for the employee or any other person;
or
(b) to cause, or seek to cause, detriment to the employee’s Agency, the Commonwealth or
any other person. (16 breaches)’
4. As your response was received on 15 April 2016, the 30 day statutory period for processing
your request commenced from the day after that date and you should therefore expect a
decision from us by 16 May 2016.
5. Please note that that section 11 of the FOI Act provides a right to obtain access to documents,
unless otherwise exempt, rather than a right to information or a right to have certain questions
responded to.
6. However, in this case, the relevant business area has confirmed that, whilst they do not possess
an existing document that contains the requested information, they are able to search and
collate relevant case history data in order to produce a discrete document under section 17 of
the FOI Act.
Preliminary Assessment of the Charge
7. In accordance with section 29 of the FOI Act, I have decided that you are liable to pay a charge
for the processing of your new request. My preliminary assessment of that charge is $45
calculated as follows:
Search and retrieval time: 3 hours, at $15.00 per hour:
$ 45
TOTAL
$ 45
8. As the decision-making time does not exceed 5 hours, we have not been included any charges
for this component in the above estimate.
9. The department proposed to create a document for the purposes of your new request pursuant
to section 17(1) of the FOI Act. The above estimate reflects the time taken to extract the
relevant data in order to provide you with the information you have requested under the FOI
Act.
Required Action
10. If you would like the department to continue processing your request, you must notify the
department in writing within 30 days of receiving this notice that you:
a) agree to pay the charge;
b) wish to contend that the charge:
i. has been wrongly assessed; or
ii. should be reduced or not imposed; or
iii. both
c) withdraw the request for access.
11. If you do not provide a written response in accordance with one of Options A, B or C above
within 30 days of receiving this notice, your request will be taken to have been withdrawn under
section 29(2) of the FOI Act.
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Department of Human Services
12. Alternatively you may wish to refine the scope of your FOI request. If you would like to discuss
this please contact me for assistance.
13. Further information on options A, B and C is set out below.
Option A - pay the charge
14. As the charge exceeds $25, you are required to pay a deposit of $11.25 within 30 days of
receiving this notice. You may, of course, elect to pay the charge in full at this point.
15. The amount due should be paid by cheque or money order made out to the Collector of Public
Monies. Please quote the reference number FOI LEX 18674 with your payment.
16. Should you elect to pay the charge please email
xxx.xxxxx.xxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
once you have posted your cheque or money order to advise us of your payment.
Option B - seek reduction or non-imposition of the charge
17. You may contend that the charge has been wrongly assessed, or should be reduced or not
imposed. Section 29(5) of the FOI Act provides that, in deciding whether to reduce or not to
impose a charge, the decision-maker must take into account any relevant reasons, including
whether payment of the charge, or part of it, would cause your organisation financial hardship,
and whether the giving of access to the documents is in the general public interest or in the
interest of a substantial section of the public.
18. If you wish to contend that the charge has been wrongly assessed or should be reduced or not
imposed, please set out your reasons and the evidence in support of your reasons as clearly as
possible. If you believe that payment of the charge would cause your organisation financial
hardship, please provide sufficient details of your financial circumstances to enable the
decision-maker to make a well-informed decision in this regard.
Option C - withdraw your request
19. If you wish to withdraw your request you may do so in writing.
Time limits for processing your request
20. Section 31 of the FOI Act provides that where a notice is sent to an applicant regarding the
payment of a charge in respect of a request, the time limit for processing the request is
suspended from the date the notice is received until either:
(a) the day following payment of the charge (in full or the required deposit); or
(b) if applicable, the day following the notification to the applicant of a decision not to impose the
charge.
Address for correspondence
21. Please send all correspondence regarding your FOI request to me at the following address:
Freedom of Information team
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Department of Human Services
Department of Human Services
PO Box 7820
CANBERRA ACT 2610
Or by email to
xxx.xxxxx.xxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx.
22. Should you have any enquiries concerning this matter, please contact me.
Finalisation of LEX 18363
23. For the sake of completeness, we assume that you wish to withdraw your previous FOI request
(LEX18363). Unless we hear otherwise from you, we will treat this matter as finalised and take
no further action in relation to your previous request.
Publication of information in the FOI disclosure log
24. Information released under the FOI Act may be published in a disclosure log on the
department's website. Section 11C of the FOI Act requires this publication, subject to certain
exceptions, including where publication of personal, business, professional or commercial
information would be unreasonable.
25. Should you have any enquiries concerning this matter, please contact me.
Yours sincerely
FOI Delegate
Freedom of Information Team
FOI and Litigation Branch | Legal Services Division
Department of Human Services
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Department of Human Services
