21 October 2021
Ref: OIA 2122-0762
Victoria Munnin
Email:
[FYI request #16957 email]
Tēnā koe Victoria
Thank you for your email of 30 September 2021 to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment
requesting, under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act), the following information:
1. Kindly provide all relevant documentation - papers, discussion documents,
meeting notes, emails, or any other relevant information - about
implemented and planned co-funding arrangements with Microsoft that the
ministry has entered into since the last general election.
2. Please include a list of all beneficiary organisations, companies, NGOs, or
collectives, or co-partners, for each co-funding arrangement, as well as their
financial plans and data on Microsoft and the Ministry's provision of funds to
them.
3. Please note when the Ministry first entered into discussions with Microsoft
about co-funding arrangements, and include any strategy documents or
discussion documents that arose from those discussions (also providing
those).
4. If there are overarching documents about this new social and economic
model that the Ministry has produced, or has been guided by and produced
by another Ministry, business or institution, and list the names of those
documents, briefly describing the contents of each.
5. Finally, please provide a list of all of the other technology companies that the
Ministry has discussed the same co-funding arrangements with.
On 14 October 2021, we sought clarification from you on whether you had any specific arrangement,
project, or area of interest regarding MBIE’s activity in mind when making your above request. This was
because, while there are a range of MBIE interactions with Microsoft – both as a supplier of services, and
a major international technology company – none of the MBIE interactions would constitute co-funding
arrangements to date.
In the same correspondence we advised you that, in the specific circumstance where you might provide
clarification to your request and a transfer was then required, we would wish to extend the 10 working
day time limit available to make a transfer until 29 October 2021 – to allow us to conduct that transfer as
soon as possible after receiving clarification from you.
We asked that you provide clarification to us on or by 11:59pm Sunday 17 October 2021 and advised that,
if we did not hear from you by then, we would proceed with the most obvious interpretation of your
request.
We have not heard from you by 17 October 2021, therefore please find our response to your request
outlined below.
MBIE1376631
Response We have interpreted Question 4’s wording (‘this new social and economic model’) and Question 5’s
wording (‘the same co-funding arrangements’) to be in direct reference to the co-funding arrangements
you seek in Question 1.
While you have not provided us with a clarification, we are transferring your request to Te Tari
Taiwhenua | Department of Internal Affairs (DIA). Despite the broad wording of your request, upon
consideration we believe the information to which your request may relate is not held by us but is held by
– and more closely connected with the functions of – the DIA. In these circumstances, we are therefore
required by section 14 of the Act to transfer your request.
You will hear further from the DIA concerning your request. You can contact the DIA via email at
[email address] or phone call on 0800 25 78 87.
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman. Information about how to
make a complaint is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone 0800 802 602.
Nāku noa, nā
Ministerial Services
Engagement, Communications and Ministerial Services
Ngā Pou o te Taumaru
