Audit Report: Timeliness of Access to Information Responses: Manitoba Finance, Executive Council, Civil Service Commission, Crown Services

2020-06-25

Summary

This report sets out the findings and conclusions of an audit conducted of FIPPA responses by four public bodies: Manitoba Finance (FIN), Executive Council (EC), Civil Service Commission (CSC) and Crown Services (CS). FIPPA services for these four public bodies are centralized and the department of Finance coordinates and responds to FIPPA requests on behalf of FIN, EC, CSC and CS. The audit examined the following:

• The public bodies’ compliance in meeting the legislated timelines under FIPPA when responding to requests.
• Whether the public bodies communicated with applicants further to receiving the requests, in keeping with the duty to assist applicants.

We made five recommendations that we believe will improve the public bodies’ compliance with their obligations for responding to access requests under FIPPA2. Implementation of the recommendations will improve compliance with the legislative obligations and assist in improving response times and communication with applicants.