Treasury and the sale of Crown Owned Entity FairWay Resolution Limited into private ownership.
David Lawson made this Official Information request to The Treasury
Response to this request is long overdue. By law The Treasury should have responded by now (details and exceptions). The requester can complain to the Ombudsman.
From: David Lawson
Dear The Treasury,
I am writing to respectfully request the provision of all official information that the Treasury holds in respect of the sale of the previously owned Crown Entity FairWay Resolution Limited, into private ownership, lead by the FairWay Resolution Limited Management team. I welcome your provision to me of all official information, including advice provided by, and or to the Treasury to and from any and all parties associated with the sale of FairWay Resolution Limited out of crown ownership that both proceeded the sale and or came into existence following the sale of FairWay Resolution Limited.
I would expect that such information will be sourced from, but not solely limited to the official information generated from Treasury's dealings with FairWay Resolution Limited, The Minister/s for ACC, the Finance Ministers and MBIE, together with all other parties which I may not mentioned and for which official information in relation to the sale of FairWay Resolution Limited applies and is held by Treasury.
I would also appreciate you providing to me within my request a copy of Treasury's "Cost Benefit Analysis associated directly with the proposed sale of Crown Owned FairWay Resolution Limited, inclusive of Treasury's suggested/indicated sale premium for the purchase" that was completed prior to the sale of the Crown Owned FairWay Resolution Limited into private ownership for which any and all advice was provided by Treasury to any and all third parties associated with, or affected by the sale of FairWay Resolution Limited into privacy ownership.
I would also welcome confirmation as to whether the Treasury factored into any advice upon the sale of FairWay Resolution Limited any social and natural justice rights of what ACC claimants stood to gain and or lose from the removal of FairWay Resolution Limited from Crown Ownership, including whether Treasury was aware that as a consequence of the sale of FairWay off the government books that FairWay Resolution Limited would claim that they no longer answerable to the statutory obligations of the Official Information Act 1982, for which they were required to comply with prior to the sale of the entity to a non crown owned private interest.
I have approached Treasury for this official information based on the former Minister of ACC Mr Michael Woodhouse's comments associated with advice sought from Treasury as reported in Mr Shane Cowlishaw's article of 4 October 2017 that appeared in Newsroom's website titled "Independence of ACC disputes entity questioned" for which can be located at the following weblinked address: https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2017/10/03/51....
The quoted passage follows from Shane Cowlishaw's article;
"Critics have noted that without a tender or consultation on the sale of FairWay, those people were again shut out of having a say on an issue directly affecting them.
ACC Minister Michael Woodhouse said he asked about the lack of a tender process and received advice that it was deemed unnecessary and would have achieved nothing.
FairWay was a small organisation with high risks to its revenue because it relied on contracts with ACC and the Ministry of Justice, plus the company’s leadership team had approached with an offer to buy, he said.
“My concern was to ensure the price was right on behalf of the taxpayer and the risks were managed in an efficient way and Treasury gave us the advice that said ‘Yep, we could go out to tender, it could take a lot longer, it would be more costly and we’d be no better off’ so the Minister of Finance and I were satisfied that that question had been answered quite clearly.” "
Public Interest:
I am an ACC claimant and as a party to the services provided by FairWay Resolution Limited, was part of a large group of affected persons/stakeholders that were not consulted by any party prior to the sale of FairWay Resolution Limited.
With the sale of FairWay Resolution Limited into private ownership I no longer have the ability, as I had prior to the sale, to have the statutory protection afforded to me of the provisions of the Official Information Act 1982, which incorporates protections allowing individuals like myself to be provided with;
- a right of access to certain official information, and
- a right of access to internal rules affecting decisions, and
- a right of access by person to reasons for decisions affecting that person, and
- a right of access to persona information.
With such a substantive loss of my previously held rights under the Official Information Act 1982, brought about by the sale, I believe that I my request is reasonable and that I have a strong public interest case in being provided with in full all the information that I have requested formally today.
I thank you for your time and assistance and look forward to hearing back from you in the near future with the official information requested.
Yours faithfully,
David Lawson
These following details are provided solely to confirm my eligibility under the Official Information Act s12(1). Do not use these details for any correspondence or clarification about the request. For the purposes of OIA s16(2) my preferred way of receiving information is by email reply to the FYI.org.nz address from which you received the request. If you send correspondence to my private address you will be asked to re-send it to the FYI.org.nz email address, where it may still be published."
116a Lynwood Road,
Kelston,
Auckland 0600
From: Liam McCabe [TSY]
The Treasury
Dear David
Please find attached an acknowledgement of your Official Information Act
request.
Regards
Liam
Liam McCabe | Ministerial Advisor | The Treasury
[1][email address]
[IN-CONFIDENCE]
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE
The information in this email is confidential to the Treasury, intended
only for the addressee(s), and may also be legally privileged. If you are
not an intended addressee:
a. please immediately delete this email and notify the Treasury by return
email or telephone (64 4 472 2733);
b. any use, dissemination or copying of this email is strictly prohibited
and may be unlawful.
References
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From: Ministerial Services Inbox [TSY]
The Treasury
Hi David
I am writing regarding your recent Official Information Act request to the
Treasury concerning FairWay Resolution Limited. A preliminary assessment
of your request has revealed that it covers many hundreds of
documents. Retrieving, assessing, consulting and preparing this volume of
documents for release would impose a significant resource burden and the
resources diverted to this task may unreasonably impact on our other
operations. However, rather than refuse your request, we would like to
agree a suitable revision to the scope that will enable us to provide you
with useful information within a reasonable timeframe. We recommend
providing you with the substantive advice on the topic that was provided
to Ministers, which we can provide reasonably quickly without needing a
long extension to the time limit. When you have reviewed this material,
you are free to make a further, more targeted request if necessary.
If you have any questions about the above please do not hesitate to
contact our team at this address.
Regards
Liam
Liam McCabe | Ministerial Advisor | The Treasury
[1][email address]
[IN-CONFIDENCE]
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE
The information in this email is confidential to the Treasury, intended
only for the addressee(s), and may also be legally privileged. If you are
not an intended addressee:
a. please immediately delete this email and notify the Treasury by return
email or telephone (64 4 472 2733);
b. any use, dissemination or copying of this email is strictly prohibited
and may be unlawful.
References
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1. mailto:[email address]
From: Ministerial Services Inbox [TSY]
The Treasury
[UNCLASSIFIED]
Good afternoon
Please find attached Treasury’s response to your Official Information Act
request.
Kind regards
Cheryl Robb | MAS Team Assistant | The Treasury
Tel: +64 4 917 6101 | [1][email address]
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE
The information in this email is confidential to the Treasury, intended
only for the addressee(s), and may also be legally privileged. If you are
not an intended addressee:
a. please immediately delete this email and notify the Treasury by return
email or telephone (64 4 472 2733);
b. any use, dissemination or copying of this email is strictly prohibited
and may be unlawful.
[UNCLASSIFIED]
References
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