July 2016
Morrison Low was recently commissioned to undertake a review of a large government agency’s Official Information Act (OIA) processes and management. This high profile agency was concerned to understand the risks and opportunities related to its current approach to managing official information.
As well as interviews with key staff and external stakeholders, including the Office of the Ombudsman, we reviewed processes and documentation to develop an understanding of the current process, model and challenges facing the agency. We identified current OIA best practice, and benchmarked the agency’s performance against this model and practice in other agencies. As part of our review we identified an existing technology solution to support processing and management of OIAs that could be implemented at very little cost and brokered the transfer of IP from another government agency at no cost.
Our review made a number of key findings and recommended sixteen improvements to current practice and management approaches. All were accepted by the Executive Leadership Team and the agency has committed to developing a formal implementation action plan.
This is the latest in a series of reviews of the management of OIAs by Government agencies Morrison Low has completed. We now have a sound and tested methodology for examining existing practice and reporting on how agencies can lift their official information policies and practices to meet best practice. Through our reviews we have consistently identified opportunities for agencies to better engage with the public, and tell their “story” when responding to requests made under the OIA or the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act.
We offer a no obligation initial consultation to prospective clients where we work with you to identify the opportunity to make improvements and any high risk areas that need to be addressed.