Howard and Department of Education, Training and the Arts
(210162, 15 January 2008)
Sufficiency of search
The applicant sought access to documents comprising an ‘internal audit review’ that was referred to in a letter sent from the Minister of Education and the Arts to the applicant.
The Department of Education, Training and the Arts (Department) provided submissions that the ‘internal audit review’ was conducted by the Department.
While Assistant Commissioner Corby agreed with the applicant’s submission that the reference to an ‘internal audit review’ in the Minister’s letter inferred a certain level of formality in the conduct of the process and that some investigation of the matter was warranted, Assistant Commissioner Corby was not satisfied that the applicant had provided evidence that any documents comprising an ‘internal audit review’ were created as a result of the process and that, in the circumstances, it was reasonable for the Department to have conducted the ‘internal audit review’ on an informal basis.
Applying the principles outlined in Shepherd and Department of Housing, Local Government & Planning (1994) 1 QAR 464, Assistant Commissioner Corby decided that there were no reasonable grounds to believe that the requested documents existed and were documents of the Department and the search efforts made by the Department to locate such documents had been reasonable in the circumstances.
