Watchdog warns government agencies

The Ombudsmen's Office has delivered a warning to government agencies about their handling of Official Information Act requests.

The office's annual report said some agencies - including some Government ministers' offices - remained "unwilling or unable" to meet official information requests in a timely way.

And the report noted that sometimes the reasons given for withholding information seemed to relate more to political or administrative convenience than to legitimate grounds under the act.

"We feel that holders of official information need to be reminded that by denying citizens access to information they are in fact denying those same citizens their right to participate in democratic processes."

The act is used by the media, political parties and others to get access to official information, and the ombudsmen are frequently asked to investigate complaints when requests are declined or met only partly.

The police topped the list again for the number of complaints, with 111 recorded in the year to June 30 compared to 128 the year before.

Next was the Labour Department with 49 complaints (43 the year before), closely followed by educational institutions with 48 (51).

Under the Ombudsmen Act, the office can also review any decision, act or omission by a central or local agency which affects individuals.

There were problems with that role as well, the report showed.

"Disturbingly we still find from time to time that the application of our OA [Ombudsmen Act] jurisdiction is questioned, which has the effect of delaying the start of an investigation.

"It is opportune also to remind agencies generally that if we decide to take up a complaint we expect them to give our investigations priority attention at a senior level."

Agencies which the office had regular contact with included ACC, Inland Revenue and the Labour Department, which were well organised to respond in a timely way to the office's approaches.

Agencies with "unsatisfactory response times" to the office's investigations included the ministries of agriculture and defence.

The report said there was also an "increasing tendency" for some agencies to hire lawyers through whom responses to Ombudsmen's investigations were being channelled.

Secondary schools and tertiary institutions were also expending "scarce resources" on expensive lawyers to rebut complaints from their own students.

The Ombudsmen

* Parliament appoints the ombudsmen to investigate complaints against central and local government agencies.

* They are independent review authorities and are accountable to Parliament, not the Government of the day.

* Ombudsmen can review any decision, act or omission by a central or local agency which affects anyone in his or her personal capacity.

* They also investigate complaints against decisions to decline requests for information under the Official Information Act (for central government) or Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act (for local bodies).