Friday, February 20, 2015



Treasury gets a disclosure log

Via DPF, TransTasman reports that Treasury has established an OIA disclosure log:

The Treasury is trialling the publication of its responses to selected OIA requests. The proactive release of individuals requests follow on from material such as Budget papers and Briefings to Incoming Ministers being released in bulk fashion for some time. Initial OIA requests released range from the Debt Management Office’s replacement of its Matriarch IT system through to Govt funding of NZ America’s Cup Teams. The argument for release is since the work has already been done to respond to the request and compile the information it might as well be more widely released.
The log itself is here. It will be updated every Thursday afternoon. But it really needs an RSS or Twitter feed so people can automatically get the info, rather than having to look for it.

Meanwhile, DPF suggests we need a government-wide disclosure log system, with all requests uploaded and tagged a week after being sent to requesters. That's a great idea, which would cost a pittance (seriously, a server is a pittance in government terms; the upload and tagging can be folded into the normal response process) and which would significantly increase transparency. I'd love to see it happen, but I just can't imagine it happening under this secretive government.