More transparent official information

Dunedin (Friday, 26 October 2012) - A New Zealand first has been launched on the DCC website with Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 (LGOIMA) responses now published at www.dunedin.govt.nz/oia.

Mayor Dave Cull is thrilled with this significant step towards improved transparency of the DCC’s information.

“We are constantly looking for ways to make our information and our processes more transparent. Alongside recent changes, such as releasing previously non-public committee items, this will be another step towards ensuring open and transparent local government.”

Not every request will be placed on the site, to ensure Privacy Act considerations are met (such as ensuring requesters cannot be identified if they do not wish to be). If requests are made that have no public interest, they won’t go up either.

Responses to media requests will always be published on the site as will responses to public organisations and Members of Parliament.

DCC Governance Manager Sandy Graham says, “The site is a first iteration and we invite users to provide feedback and suggestions, which can be directed to officialinformation@dcc.govt.nz.”

The site includes an online form for requesting information under LGOIMA. The form will enable staff to track and collate data more efficiently, to ensure the information requested is clear and accurate and help ensure responses are provided within the statutory time frame. A search tool will be added as the store of information grows, to ease the process of searching topics that may have already been requested.

The first three months of responses, from July - September of this year, have been made available and it is expected that the site will be updated monthly.

ENDS

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