Council said it could improve its processes by: proactively releasing information, with the aim of enabling customers to self-serve, give customers better information on the most appropriate and efficient pathway to obtain information, applying processing charges for time spent on GIPA applications; exploring the imposition of a fee on informal GIPA requests and implementing Council’s Information and Records Improvement Plan, to reduce the time taken for GIPA staff to locate relevant information in Council’s corporate records system.
But then the report stated that the implementation of any of these process improvements depended on sufficient internal resourcing.
It has one full time and on part time employees working on GIPAs in comparison to 2019 when it had five full time staff.
“Since January 2024, Council has received a total of 2,746 informal GIPA applications and 219 formal GIPA applications,” Council said.
“During 2019, Council’s records indicate that 1,227 informal applications and 121 formal applications were received.
“Benchmarking against other Councils can be undertaken.
“However, information which has been informally provided by one other council indicates that, for the 2024 calendar year, a total of 757 informal GIPA applications and 209 formal applications were received, and that council has four full-time Information Officers.”
Council did not name the other council.
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