Herald backs relaunch of website for official information requests

Over almost six years of operation the FYI website has built up a repository of 2480 requests from 1256 users.

The Herald is helping relaunch FYI.org.nz - a website which helps members of the public to make Official Information Act requests.

Rowan Crawford, a software developer, set up the FYI website after a 2009 Open Government event as the first version of this tool outside Britain.

Website users can make requests and receive replies from government agencies through the site.

Over almost six years of operation the FYI website has built up a repository of 2480 requests from 1256 users.

Mr Crawford said the OIA, introduced in 1982 to promote transparency and accountability of public agencies, has been weakened over time. "Ways to circumnavigate it are in the first place discovered, and in the second place accepted."

The Ombudsman, Dame Beverley Wakem, announced an independent review of government agencies and ministerial offices in December.

Mr Crawford is stepping back from the project to concentrate on work commitments with start-up Hapara, and the Herald has agreed to help run the website.

Recent requests include asking for documents provided to Ministry of Social Development fraud investigators, looking at reviews of medical cannabis and detailing the gender breakdown of Scholarship chemistry exam results. The FYI website has even fielded a request to provide any evidence that the Prime Minister is not a "David Icke-style shapeshifting reptilian alien" which received media attention for the good-humoured reply, "no official information specific to [the] request has been identified".

OIA requests require responses within a statutory maximum period of 20 working days, with extensions allowed under certain circumstances.

Legislation also states ministers and public agencies must respond as soon as reasonably possible, however Mr Key has stated "sometimes we wait the 20 days because, in the end, Government might take the view that's in our best interest to do that".