The General Manager of Treasury’s Corporate Strategy and Services Group is designated by the Secretary of the Treasury as the senior officer responsible for leading Treasury’s work on implementing FOI Act requirements, including the IPS. The Corporate Strategy and Services Group encompasses the Freedom of Information, communications, information management and publishing areas of Treasury.
a) Establishing Treasury’s IPS contribution by 1 May 2011
The General Manager, Corporate Strategy and Services Group, is supported by the Freedom of Information (FOI) Unit and Publishing Unit to establish Treasury’s contribution to the IPS by 1 May 2011.
The FOI Unit has prepared an IPS project plan for tasks to be completed by 1 May 2011 including:
- identification of the process for implementation of the IPS;
- a timetable for implementation; and
- responsibilities and accountabilities for the tasks to be completed.
Treasury’s internal auditors will review the plan and its implementation to assure compliance with the legislative requirements by 1 May 2011.
The FOI Unit has prepared a register of information required or permitted to be published under sections 8 (2) and 8 (4).
To prepare the register, the FOI unit:
- required Treasury groups and business areas within Treasury’s Freedom of Information responsibilities to review their functions and information holdings to identify material relevant to section 8(2);
- identified information to be made available through the IPS portal in accordance with section 8(4); and
- reviewed documents to ensure they are up to date, completed and accurate.
b) Administering information published under the IPS from 1 May 2011
From 1 May 2011, the General Manager, Corporate Strategy and Services Group, will continue to be responsible for managing the IPS. The Strategy and Information Management Unit will maintain registers of IPS required and optional information and liaise with authors to ensure that it is up-to-date, accurate and complete.
The Strategy and Information Management Unit will manage Treasury’s agency plan. As new processes are developed for managing information and internet material, the Strategy and Information Management Unit will work with the relevant areas to integrate the IPS management into the management frameworks and update this agency plan accordingly.
The Strategy and Information Management Unit will lead better practice initiatives to engage with the community about Treasury’s contribution to the IPS. These include:
- inviting members of the public to provide comments to the IPS contact officer via the Treasury website on the IPS information holdings, particularly where documents are found not to be discoverable, understandable or machine-readable; and
- providing IPS information holdings in alternative forms if possible when required.
Treasury may charge a person for accessing any IPS documents which it is impracticable to publish online:
- at the lowest reasonable cost; and
- to reimburse specific reproduction costs of other specific incidental costs (section 8D(4)).
Should any IPS documents be impracticable to publish online, Treasury will advise the documents are available. The website will provide contact details for arranging access to any of those documents.
If applicable, the advice will include any indicative changes that may be imposed for making that information available and an explanation for the charge. These charges will be consistent with charges in the Freedom of Information (Charges) Regulations 1982 (which generally apply to access requests under Part III of the FOI Act).