Official Information Request - External Consultants

Sent: 21/4/2016 at 3:48 p.m.
Received: 21/4/2016 at 3:49 p.m.
Subject: OIA council consultants

I refer to your email of 22 March requesting information on the council spend for external consultants over the past five years.

Attached is a spreadsheet showing the consultant name and the amounts per year. These amounts cover council’s financial years July to June.

A significant number of firms providing professional and other services are captured within the general definition of consultant within the Rotorua Lakes Council’s financial system.

With regard to your request to itemise what these amounts were for, this would take a considerable amount of staff time to research and compile as each of the invoices would need to be recovered from records and a manager who holds knowledge of the activity at the time would need to identify what work each invoice related to. For this reason we have declined this part of your request under section 17(f) of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 - “That the information requested cannot be made available without substantial collation or research”.

Under legislation we are obliged to advise that if you have any concerns with the adequacy of our response you may contact the Ombudsman by writing to:

The Office of the Ombudsman
P O Box 10 152
WELLINGTON 6143

Or alternatively by email to: mailto:complaint@ombudsmen.parliament.nz

Regards

Kim McGrath Executive Assistant, Strategy and Partnerships