2022-2023 finanicial year report of legal services expenditure for the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman
Dear Attorney-General's Department,
Paragraph 11.1(ba) of the Legal Services Directions 2017 (Cth) provides:
The accountable authority of a non‑corporate Commonwealth entity is responsible for ensuring that the entity’s legal services purchasing, including expenditure, is appropriately recorded and monitored and that, by 30 October each year, the entity makes publicly available records of its legal services expenditure for the previous financial year.
Paragraph 11.1(da) of the Legal Services Directions 2017 (Cth) provides:
The accountable authority of a non‑corporate Commonwealth entity is responsible for ensuring that the entity reports to OLSC about the legal services expenditure and legal work of the entity, using a template approved by OLSC that specifies the matters to be reported, within 60 days after the end of each financial year.
The accountable authority of the listed entity known as the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman is the Commonwealth Ombudsman, Mr Iain Anderson (Ombudsman Act 1976 (Cth), s 4A(c)).
As at 12 November 2023, the Commonwealth Ombudsman has failed to make publicly available the records of the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s legal services expenditures for the 2022-2023 financial year on the website of the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman: www.ombudsman.gov.au/about/accountabilit....
Under the FOI Act I request access to the report provided by the Commonwealth Ombudsman to the OLSC under paragraph 11.1(da) of the Legal Services Directions 2017 (Cth) about the legal services expenditure and legal work of the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman, particularly because there is no publicly accessible record of the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s legal services expenditures on the website of the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman for the 2022-2023 financial year.
Please do not transfer this request to the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman: Bienstein v Attorney-General [2007] FCA 1174, [38]. If the document requested does not exist, please simply note that in the relevant decision notice.
Please provide documents to me by return email.
Yours faithfully,
Stephen
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OFFICIAL
Dear applicant
Freedom of Information Request FOI23/583
I refer to your request to the Attorney-General's Department (the
department) under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) for access
to documents. Your request is for:
the report provided by the Commonwealth Ombudsman to the OLSC under
paragraph 11.1(da) of the Legal Services Directions 2017 (Cth) about the
legal services expenditure and legal work of the Office of the
Commonwealth Ombudsman, particularly because there is no publicly
accessible record of the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s legal
services expenditures on the website of the Office of the Commonwealth
Ombudsman for the 2022-2023 financial year.
The department received your request on 12 November 2023 and the 30 day
statutory period for processing your request commenced from the day after
that date. The department sent you an auto-reply acknowledgement on
receipt of your email.
The department's practice is to not disclose personal information of staff
of the department and other government authorities, where that information
is not publicly known or routinely disclosed (e.g. names of junior
officers and contact information). The names of senior officers will
generally be disclosed. In addition, duplicates and incomplete email
chains, internal administrative email addresses and metadata within the
scope of the FOI request will be excluded.
Extension of Time Request
Under s 15AA of the FOI Act, an agency may extend the initial processing
period for dealing with a request by a further period of no more than 30
days if the applicant agrees in writing to the extension and the agency
gives written notice of the extension to the Information Commissioner as
soon as practicable after the agreement is made.
I would like to request your agreement to extend the processing period for
your request by 30 days. I am requesting this extension of time from you
due to the impacts of considerable recent increase in the number of
information access applications currently being received by the
department, and the upcoming government closedown during the holiday
period from 25 December – 1 January. While we have commenced processing
your request, due to these factors we will be unable to finalise the
decision by the current due date. If you agree to grant the department
this extension, it will provide us with the time to respond to your
request in early January 2024.
If you agree to the requested extension of 30 days, please let me know in
writing at your earliest convenience.
The department received your request on 12 November 2023 and your request
is currently due on 12 December 2023. If you agree to the requested
extension, the new due date will be 11 January 2023.
Please note that if you agree to the extension, the department is required
to notify the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, including
your name and contact details.
If you have any questions, please contact me by telephone on (02) 6141
6666 or by email to [1][AGD request email].
Kind regards
Dana
Assistant Director, FOI and Privacy Section
Enabling Services Group
Attorney-General’s Department
T: 02 6141 6666 E: [2][AGD request email]
Dear Dana,
I think a 30 day extension of time is unnecessary.
I am willing to grant an extension of time until 20 December 2023 to assist the AGD in processing the request.
The request is a simple one. It's for a single document and the AGD has, in the past, had no problem providing that document to me in full: https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/2....
I reiterate that I am seeking the document because the Commonwealth Ombudsman has failed to comply with his obligations under the Legal Services Directions 2017 (Cth): Paragraph 11.1(ba)
Yours sincerely,
Stephen
OFFICIAL
Dear Stephen
Freedom of Information Request FOI23/585
I refer to your request to the Attorney-General's Department (the
department) under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) for access
to documents.
Thank you for agreeing to an extension under section 15AA of the FOI Act
to the 20 December.
The purpose of this email is to provide you with a decision in response to
that request.
Please find attached:
o decision letter, including:
o review rights,
o statement of reasons, and
o document.
If you have any questions, please contact me by telephone on (02) 6141
6666 or by email to [1][AGD request email].
Kind regards
Leonie
Freedom of Information and Privacy
Attorney-General’s Department
T: 02 6141 6666 | E: [2][AGD request email]
OFFICIAL
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AGD FOI Admin left an annotation ()
Dear Stephen, The Attorney-General's Department provided your decision on 20/12/2023 by email to foi+request-10857-64f30669@righttoknow.org.au
We have received a Delivery Status Notification (Delay) on 21/12/23 at 5.56PM which has provided the following information:
Delivery incomplete
There was a temporary problem delivering your message to foi+request-10857-64f30669@righttoknow.org.au. Gmail will retry for 141 more hours. You'll be notified if the delivery fails permanently.
The response from the remote server was:
452 4.3.1 Insufficient system storage
Please contact us to receive a copy of your decision.
Joanna
Assistant Director
Freedom of Information and Privacy
Attorney-General’s Department
T: (02) 6141 6666 | E: foi@ag.gov.au