The objective of this audit was to assess whether the selected entities’ administration of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) requests is effective in giving the community access to Australian Government information. Audited entities were the departments of: Prime Minister and Cabinet; Treasury; and Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts.

There were six recommendations made to the audited entities to improve their administration of FOI Act requests, and three recommendations made to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner relating to system-wide improvements. All entities agreed or agreed in principle to the recommendations directed at them.

Key findings

• Administration of FOI Act requests by the audited entities has been partly effective in giving the community access to information.
• The audited entities provided some documents to the applicant for 43% of the requests examined. The audit identified a range of shortcomings with entity administration of FOI Act requests that are inconsistent with the pro-disclosure objects of the FOI Act.
• Decision-making in the three audited entities was not consistently transparent and accountable.