[LINK] FOI denied: $1mil charge to restore backup

[Frank O'Connor]

Unbelievable!

So, the government's 'world's best practice' IT contractor, to whom they are paying squillions of questionably assigned taxpayer dollars for even more questionable performance, doesn't have the IT skills/nouse/capacity/systems to trace and audit it's own backups of internal data processing systems and provide data which would help monitor and assess its performance, quality, accountability and cost-benefit ...

When I come back in another life, I want to be a Victorian government IT contractor.

Either that or a Victorian Government VCAT president.

Either way I wouldn't have to do much to be remunerated with princely sums, lack of accountability and responsibility, and all manner of obfuscation mechanisms to disguise my lack of performance.
---
On 20/09/2012, at 1:11 PM, Jan Whitaker <jwhit at janwhitaker.com> wrote:

> [this is just funny; 
> http://www.theage.com.au/it-pro/government-it/age-defeated-over-1m-foi-request-20120919-2672p.html 
> ]
> 
> 
> Age defeated over '$1m' FOI request
> 
> Melissa Fyfe
> Published: September 20, 2012 - 3:00AM
> 
> The Age has lost a freedom of information battle against a state 
> government body that claimed it would take 24 years and cost nearly 
> $1 million to process two requests.
> 
> The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal has accepted the 
> evidence of CenITex, the government's centre for information 
> technology excellence, that The Age's FOI requests would divert ''a 
> substantial and unreasonable portion'' of CenITex's resources away 
> from its other operations.
> 
> VCAT deputy president Heather Lambrick found CenITex 
> <http://www.smh.com.au/it-pro/government-it/24-years-1m-cost-for-foi-request-20120819-24git.html?rand=1348098779445>had 
> not exaggerated the estimate of time and resources but she questioned 
> several aspects of its response.
> 
> CenITex had said it would have to restore all emails within the time 
> frame of the requests, which related to complaints about CenITex 
> contractors, the electronic diaries of key executives, customer 
> feedback results and CenITex's gift and hospitality register.
> 
> To restore the emails, the agency said it had to buy extra computer 
> equipment. CenITex's position is unusual in the Victorian government 
> - most departments and agencies have easily searchable email archives 
> and do not require an expensive restoration of archives to meet FOI requests.
> 
> Ms Lambrick said she found it ''surprising'' that the government's 
> centre for information and technology excellence ''would not have the 
> sufficient equipment for this request to be processed''. CenITex's 
> estimate of one hour to restore each encrypted email was, she said, 
> ''staggering''.
> 
> She said The Age had never accepted CenITex's explanations for why it 
> considered the scope of the request too large and had ''preferred to 
> adopt a cynical approach expressing disbelief and incredulity''.
> 
> 
> 
> Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
> jwhit at janwhitaker.com
> blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
> business: http://www.janwhitaker.com
> 
> Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or 
> sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
> ~Madeline L'Engle, writer
> 
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