Grehan and Department of Employment, Training and Industrial Relations

Grehan and Department of Employment, Training and Industrial Relations
(2001 S0053, 30 June 2003) 

The applicant sought access to 53 categories of documents relating to a grievance lodged in 1999 against himself and another officer of an Institute of TAFE.  The respondent gave the applicant access to a number of documents under the FOI Act, and had already allowed him administrative access to what it contended were all the documents relating to the subject matter of his FOI access application.  The applicant contended that there must be further relevant documents in the respondent's possession or under its control, which had been concealed by the respondent from the Information Commissioner, and from other agencies to whom the applicant had complained about corruption in the Institute. 

After negotiations were held regarding the respondent's interpretation of some parts of the applicant's FOI access application, and inspection of documents by a member of staff of the Information Commissioner's office, the respondent agreed to give the applicant access to some additional documents.  The Deputy Information Commissioner decided that there were no reasonable grounds for believing that the respondent had, in its possession or under its control, any further documents which fell within the terms of the applicant's FOI access application, and that the searches and inquiries conducted by the respondent in an effort to locate all responsive documents had been reasonable in all the circumstances of the case.