Wednesday, March 04, 2015



"As soon as practicable" II

In New Zealand, "our" spies are part of the core public service. Every year the GCSB is required to submit an annual report to the Minister "as soon as practicable after each year ending on 30 June".

I've been waiting for the GCSB's annual report for a while. So, three weeks ago I used the OIA to ask the Minister whether they'd received it. According to the response I got yesterday, he has - on February 16, four days after I made my request. Whether this "as soon as practicable" is left as an exercise for the reader.

(By comparison, almost every other government department submitted their annual report in mid-October - the exception being the Ministry of Women's Affairs, which also slacked around until February).