Appendicies, including acronyms and abbreviations (PDF - 194Kb)

APPENDIX 8Freedom of InformationDuring 2006–07, 179 requests were received fordocuments under the Freedom of InformationAct 1982 (the Act). Full access was grantedfor 64 requests and partial access for a further45. Access was denied for 15 requests anddocuments could not be located or did not existfor 25 requests. Six requests were withdrawn.At the end of the reporting period, there were 16requests for which no decision had been made.Where access was not granted to a document,the major exemption categories in the Act usedin decision making were:• section 30 (opinions, advice andrecommendations that are against thepublic interest to release)• section 32 (legal professional privilege)• section 33 (to protect the privacy of thepersonal affairs of others)• section 34 (documents relating to businessor trade secrets)• section 35 (communications in confidence).Six applicants sought an internal review. Theoriginal decisions of four were fully upheldwhile two original decisions were varied. Therewere three appeals to the Victorian Civil andAdministrative Tribunal for review of decisionsmade under the Act. One was withdrawn beforea hearing was scheduled. The Tribunal upheldthe original decision in the second. The thirdmatter is yet to be determined by the Tribunalas at 30 June 2007.Publication requirementsThe information required to be publishedpursuant to section 7 of the Act is eithercontained below or is found in other parts ofthis report. This information relates to thefollowing agencies:• Department of Education• Merit Protection Boards• Registered Schools Board.Queries about the availability of and chargesfor other material prepared under Part II ofthe Act should be directed to the relevantauthorised offi cer (see table on page 144).Categories of documentsThe Department and its agencies produce alarge number of documents in a decentralisedrecord-keeping environment. Accordingly,the Department does not maintain a single,consolidated list of detailed categories ofdocuments. All agencies maintain collectionsof policy fi les, transaction fi les and recordsand, where necessary, personnel records. Avariety of indexes and other search aids areused by agencies. In general, fi les and recordsare retrieved through subject descriptors orpersonal name. Following are the generalcategories of documents maintained byagencies.Correspondence, administrative andpolicy documentsEach agency responsible for its own records.Regional offi ces and schools maintain theirown record-keeping systems. These arelargely independent of the systems used bythe central administration.Personnel documentsAgencies maintain record-keeping systems fortheir employees including, where appropriate,records for members of the teaching serviceand the VPS.Accounting recordsAccounting records are maintained on acomputerised accounting system. The recordsdeal with general ledger entries, accountspayable, payroll and other accountingfunctions. Some paper records are also kept.Appendices143