Reference: Objective ID R31523164
FOI 104/17/18 STATEMENT OF REASONS UNDER THE FREEDOM OF
INFORMATION ACT
1.
I refer to the application by Ms Verity Pane, Right to Know, under the
Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (FOI Act), for access to:
“…Item 1: Records of consultation, or advice sought (or any other similar activity) by
Defence FOI Information Management and Access Governance and Reform Division
employees with Defence CFO Group employees regarding the ability or inability to
produce the financial records sought by Right to Know FOI Request
https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/2016_17_most_expensive_trip_4#comment-
1958 (the revised scope - a summary report of all ROMAN related travel account codes,
by total transactional value, by month, for 2016/17)
Item 2: Records of consultation, or advise sought, involving Defence CFO Group
employees for the production of transactional and/or summary reports from
ROMAN/CMS to provide to the Australian National Audit Office for Performance Audit
No.33 of 2015–16 "Defence’s Management of Credit and other Transaction Cards"
[Note, to avoid all doubt, the actual transactions themselves are not sought, just records
relating to the technical production of said transactional/summary reports from
Defence's financial information management systems such as ROMAN/CMS …”
excluding personal email addresses, signatures, PMKeys numbers and mobile telephone
numbers, contained in documents that fall within the scope of the FOI request. In
addition, excluding duplicates of documents
FOI decision maker
2.
I am the accredited officer pursuant to section 23 of the FOI Act to make a decision on
this FOI request.
Documents identified
3.
I identified 2 documents as matching the description of the request.
Decision
4.
I have decided to:
a. refuse access to Item 1 of the request under subparagraph
24A(1)(b)(ii)[Requests may be refused if documents cannot be found, do not
exist or have not been received] of the FOI Act;
b. partially release one document in accordance with section 22 [access to edited
copies with exempt or irrelevant matter deleted] of the FOI Act, on the grounds
that the deleted material is considered exempt under section 7 [exemption of
certain persons and bodies];
c. refuse access to documents for Item 2 of the request under section 7 of the FOI
Act; and
2
d. remove irrelevant material as referred to in the scope of the request in
accordance with section 22(1)(b)(ii) of the FOI Act.
Material taken into account
5.
In making my decision, I had regard to:
a. the terms of the request;
b. the content of the identified documents in issue;
c. relevant provisions in the FOI Act;
d. the Guidelines published by the Office of the Australian Information
Commissioner under section 93A of the FOI Act (the Guidelines); and
e. advice received from the Chief Finance Officer Group.
Reasons for decision
Section 24A – Requests may be refused if documents cannot be found, do not exist or
have not been received
6.
Section 24A(1) of the FOI Act states:
(1)
an agency or Minister may refuse a request for access to a document
if:
(a)
all reasonable steps have been taken to find the document; and
(b)
the agency or Minister is satisfied that the document:
(i)
is in the agency’s or Minister’s possession but
cannot be found; or
(ii)
does not exist.
7.
Officers within the Information Access Directorate undertook searches in the Objective
folder created for the FOI Inquiry matching the scope of Item 1 of this request. While a
number of documents were found relating to the management of the case there were no
documents from the Information Access Directorate to the Chief Finance Officer Group.
8.
The Information Access Directorate did not approach the Chief Finance Officer Group
as Defence does not perform the function of reporting on ministerial travel and therefore does
not hold the information requested by the applicant.
9.
Based on the above, I am satisfied that no documents could be located that meet the
scope of Item 1. In addition, I am satisfied that all reasonable steps have been taken to locate
the documents that may have matched Item 1. Accordingly I have decided to refuse access to
Item 1 under section 24A(1) of the FOI Act.
Section 7 – Exemption of certain persons or bodies
10. The Chief Finance Officer Group undertook searches for documents matching Item 2 of
the request and located two emails. Both emails contained information from the Australian
National Audit Office. Section 7(1) of the FOI Act (supplemented by Schedule 2, Part I) lists
agencies that are exempt from the operation of the Act. This includes the Auditor-General.
One of these emails was exempt in its entirety under section 7 of the FOI Act. The remaining
email has been released with the exempt material removed.
3
Further Information
11. One of the documents matching the scope of this request contained a dissemination
limiting marker. As the document is approved for public release the marker has been struck
through.
Digitally signed by
nicola.vin nicola.viney
Date: 2017.10.03
ey
16:41:30 +11'00'
Ms Nicola Viney
Accredited Decision Maker
Associate Secretary Group
