30 May 2023
Shane Gibson
[FYI request #22602 email]
Ref: OIA-2022/23-0878
Dear Shane Gibson
Official Information Act request relating to follow up questions regarding a request for
an extract of the annual amount spent with suppliers for the 2021/2022 financial year
Thank you for your Official Information Act 1982 (the Act) request received on 3 May 2023.
You requested:
- What financial system are you currently using which means you are not able to
easily
export
this
information?
-
What
is
the
estimated
effort
to
make
this
data
available?
- Where is the main complexity or effort which will result in the substantial cost to
provide
it?
- Given you have already provided this information for Contractors and Consultants
(thank you for providing a link to this information), what makes this request result in
substantial more effort meaning you cannot fulfil it?”
Please find my responses to your questions below.
1. What financial system are you currently using which means you are not able to easily
export this information?
The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC), which includes the departmental
agency, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), uses the financial system,
TechnologyOne.
2. What is the estimated effort to make this data available?
3. Where is the main complexity or effort which will result in the substantial cost to
provide it?
4. Where is the main complexity or effort which will result in the substantial cost to
provide it?
5. Given you have already provided this information for Contractors and Consultants
(thank you for providing a link to this information), what makes this request result in
substantial more effort meaning you cannot fulfil it?”
As these questions are similar in nature, I will respond to them as one.
In our response to you of 3 May 2023, we advised that to provide an extract of the annual
amount spent with suppliers for the 2021/2022 financial year would involve substantial
manual collation. As such, your request was refused under section 18(f) of the Act.
4748964
Executive Wing, Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand 6011
64 4 817 9698 www.dpmc.govt.nz
The TechnologyOne tool used enables us to record the following criteria:
• payments to each supplier/reimbursement to staff
• the New Zealand Business Number only in instances where the supplier has shown it
on a tax invoice and our team entered it into the finance system
• the value of payments
• a tag for each supplier to categorise its business type.
While the system can produce the raw data, getting it ready for release would require us to
manually review and cross-reference over 1,100 data entries to, for example, identify any
non-suppliers in the data including government agencies and reimbursements to staff, along
with a number of other checks.
We consider undertaking the above actions to be an extensive task, amounting to substantial
collation, and the greater public interest is in the effective and efficient management of the
public service. To that end, we maintain our view that your request cannot be met with
without substantial collation.
I hope this explanation satisfies your request.
You have the right to ask the Ombudsman to investigate and review my decision under
section 28(3) of the Act. We do not intend to publish this response on the Department of the
Prime Minister and Cabinet’s website.
Yours sincerely
Clare Ward
Executive Director
Strategy, Governance and Engagement
4748964
2
