Access - Chapter 2

Hi Team,

It looks like i've got my dates mixed up!  This week is school holidays, however your schedule says that you should be reading chapter 2.  OOPS!!  Anyway here is chapter 2 wrap up. 

Chapter 2

Did you know . . . .

• FOI Act, 1991 only relates to SA's local & state govt agencies and the universities;
• FOI applications must be made in writing and submitted to the agency with the necessary application fee;
• You are not allowed to question the reason of the applicant's application;
• FOI Applications need to be responded to in 30 calendar days;
• An Australian postal address must be specified on the written application.  I checked with the FOI team and PO Boxes in Australia can be used;
• Application fees can be waived by the agency;
• FOI applications can include the access to various types of records, highlighting the importance of ensuring that data migration from technologies that are fast becoming redundant is always forefront in our minds when preserving records (think audio cassette tapes, it is almost impossible to buy a walkman these days) 
• That if an applicant identifies that an agency's record/s are incomplete, incorrect, out-of-date or misleading, the applicant has the right to apply for an amendment;
• Check out Part 6, section 52, pg 30 of the Act

Fig 1 - What are your thoughts?

This chapter was a review on what we previously covered in the "Creation, Capture & Control" subject, however it goes into a lot more detail of the Freedom of Information Act, 1991.  The Act in itself is not very long, compared to some others, so i encourage you to have a read and discuss it in more detail. 

Within our class there are not a lot of students who have had to directly deal with an FOI application/request.  In most agencies the FOI Officer and the RM Officer are two different people. Sometimes the FOI Officer sits, or is situated within/near the RM team.  If you don't know who your agency's FOI Officer is, find out who they are.  Make yourself known to them.

The Freedom Of Information Act, 1991 is only applicable to local & state government & universities within SA.  It does not apply to federal or interstate government agencies or to the private sector.  Each state and the commonwealth have their own FOI legislation.  Further details are available on our website.

The objectives of the FOI Act is to promote openness in government and facilitate more effective participation from members of the public.  This means that information concerning the administration and operations of government are readily available to the public. 

FOI Applications can impact quite heavily on an agency and not having your records and documents in order can only add to the frustrations!  Did you know that once an FOI Application is received by the agency, that the agency has only 30 calendar days to respond!  It might sound like a long time, but calendar days also includes weekends and public holidays. 

Imagine juggling a couple FOI Applications that access determinations need to be finalised.  To add to the tight deadline, the Act also identifies that postage of the access determination will take 5 calendar days. . . Before you know it you are looking at a 25 calendar day turnaround! 

If you think that you are not going to make the 30 day deadline, you have 20 calendar days in which you are to advise the applicant for an extension. This extension must be provided in writing to the applicant (another 5 days for postage!).  Ideally you would put your business efficiency skills to use & contact the applicant on the phone, advise of the delay, negotiate a mutually acceptable time frame and advise that a letter to that effect will be sent to confirm the new arrangement. 

There are some agencies that are excluded from the FOI Act (Schedule 2, pg 39), meaning that they do not need to provide information under the Act.  Could you imagine organised crime groups putting in an FOI Application with the SA Police in regards to certain manuals on how police activities/operations are carried out? 

This info (and a lot more) is available on our website.  If you have any detailed FOI questions direct them to your FOI Officer or the State Records FOIP team on 08 8204 8786.

Article of the week

While doing some research on what articles are out there in relation to RM I came across this
http://www.zdnet.com/vic-govt-makes-its-spatial-data-available-to-public-7000017739/?s_cid=e551&ttag=e551  

Some interesting reading.  What are your thoughts on making records readily available to the community, rather than putting in an FOI request?  Would this process make it easier, or harder for the community to access records created by the government?  I'm interested to hear your thoughts.

Enjoy your school holidays & hope to see people on 30/7 for Chapter 3.

Please let me know if you are unable to make the class.

Ciao,

Melisa Z-G