Does ECan Chair Understand Open Government?

The governments highly paid ECan Chair, Dame Margaret Bazley, seems to have demonstrated that the commissioners knowledge of democratic open government may be sadly lacking. In an article in The Press, about ECan CEO’s departure and intimated golden handshake, Dame Margaret said “the OIA (Official Information Act) response had not included papers outlining discussions because they had not been written ones.”

In a written comment to the article ECan in Exile said

We are very concerned that the governments ECan commissioners feel themselves able to withold discussions from OIA (Official Information) request just because they are not in writing. Official information includes information that has not been written down, so it is very worrying that such highly paid experts as the ECan commissioners chair seems to be unaware of such an important piece of public accountability law & practice.
Citizens wanting a guide on making OIA requests can find information on our webpage HERE:
The article citing OIA and non-written information is found in this article on the above webpage: “Media Article about using the LGOIMA & OIA”
There are also downloadable LGOIMA (Council OIA) forms on the same webpage.