OIA league tables a good idea
TVNZ reports:
New ranking tables to name and shame government departments about noncompliance with Official Information Act requests are likely by the middle of the year, the Ombudsman’s Office says.
Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier has told TV3’s The Nation he plans to shake up enforcement of the act, which allows New Zealanders to request information from most government departments.
He said league tables to rank departments for their OIA responses were on the cards for July 1.
“We pretty much know who are the good compliers and who are not, and probably it would be good for the public to know that as well,” he said.
This is an excellent idea and should have been done years ago. No Right Turn has been compiling his own in the absence of official ones.
The data I suggest they collate and publish for each agency:
- Number of OIA requests made
- Number granted, partially granted and declines
- How many responses were sent before 20 days
- Median time for a response
- Number of extensions
- How many requesters appealed to the Ombudsman?
- What proportion of those appealed to Ombudsman were upheld, partially upheld or reversed?
- How many requests were made by the five most frequent requesters