Comptroller and Auditor General Karen McConnell has been reviewing how the government responds to questions from the public and the media since we got a legal right to find out what the government is up to just over a year ago, when the Freedom of Information Law came into force.
Since then our requests have been flooding in – with 691 filed in the first 12 months alone – and we’ve been asking questions and getting answers from the police, health service, Education department and other arms of government ever since, on subjects as far afield as public spending, speeding and the prospect of a zombie attack.
The States now have two dedicated members of staff working on all our FOI requests in the Communications Unit, which is part of the Chief Minister’s department, but the watchdog says there’s “significant work to do” to improve information systems, training and understanding costs.
The report has made nine recommendations – it says that the States should clearly document who is responsible for what, consider getting a single IT record management system in place, and do a better job of training staff in record management.
In a statement accompanying her report, Mrs McConnell said: “The weaknesses I have identified in underlying records management reinforce my findings from other reviews on management information and overlap with my report on information security.
“Although the States have met the requirements of FoI legislation, the common themes of a lack of awareness of cost, poor quality of data and weak records management – linked in part to aged and inadequate systems – are hindering progress.”
You can see the full report here.