Viking on the loose

It all started with the “umboosmaor”. That’s Old Norse for “representative”. By 1809, the Swedish had created the first “umbuds man” institution and from Scandinavia the phenomenon of ombudsman spread to many countries around the world including New Zealand, in 1962.

Twenty years later, and the Office of the Ombudsman became the guardians of a great piece of legislation, the Official Information Act 1982. Or the OIA, as it is fondly referred to. When I say fondly I’m possibly being a little fatuous as, depending on how it is used and by whom, the OIA can be a godsend or a right pain in the butt. In 2015, then chief ombudsman Dame Beverley Wakem released the report Not a game of hide and seek following an investigation into the public service’s application of the OIA.

For her investigation, Dame Beverley selected 12 government agencies, as representatives of their public service colleagues, and took an in-depth look at attitudes, policies and practices regarding official information release. The Ministry of Health was one of those selected.

In 2019, new chief ombudsman Peter Boshier took the timely decision to revisit those 12 agencies and again check out their attitudes, policies and practices; timely because, five months later, WHO was announcing a global pandemic and the need for access to official information was amped up. Mr Boshier likewise amped up his investigation to cover off the resilience of OIA policy and practice in the face of the challenges presented by the pandemic.

All said and done, the ministry comes out not too bad but, like many of its counterparts, with significant room for improvement, ranging from the handling of requests to the storage of public records. I didn’t know it was possible to still use Lotus Notes!

There’s evidence to suggest that in the years since the 2015 report, agencies have eased up on treating official information requests like a colossal chore and potential tool of entrapment. But it remains patchy. A sample of problems: written guidance on OIA doesn’t match actual practice; the requirement to notify ministers of impending information releases at times smacks of seeking ministerial approval; staff often fail to inform requesters of their right of appeal; resourcing of OIA services and training is widely variable; and checks and counterchecks in advance of information threaten “timely release”.

Transparency is yet to become the default culture.

On the upside, the ministry was one agency applauded for its proactive release of information throughout the COVID crisis, and encouraged to continue in that vein.

Why should you care? Official information is not just about the legislation and its use by media, lobby groups and politicians to access information. Properly implemented, it is the platform for a culture of openness and transparency in agencies, allowing public servants to be just what their title suggests – servants of the public.

As the pandemic loomed, Mr Boshier reports he was asked by the Ministry of Justice, in its role as administrator of the OIA, whether any modifications might be needed to the requirements of the OIA in the event of a pandemic. It was deemed the OIA was sufficiently flexible to meet the extra challenges a pandemic would bring.

However, as Mr Boshier points out, “It is sobering that there was a possibility that the requirements of the OIA – the key legislative document that allows government information to be requested and supplied – could have been modified.” Especially at a time when a fully functioning act was critical to ensuring access to information.

It was also a timely reminder of the value of an independent oversight agency – aka the Office of the Ombudsman – and maybe a link back to those Viking warrior roots.

After months, nay years of agitation, general practice leaders, trainers, registrars have been rewarded with more than platitudes. General practice is to be better funded for training new GPs, registrars will be better paid and junior doctors in the hospital system will be required to work for 12 weeks in the community. It’s a start towards revitalising general practice.