Statement on How Code on Access to Information applications should be handled

[Simon H WANG]

Please also notice the following statement about our expectations of how the Code on Access to Information applications should be handled.

While we appreciate the government’s efforts to maintain transparency and accountability under the Code on Access to Information, we also notice considerable variation among different departments and bureaux in their responses to our Code on Access to Information applications. We would appreciate it if your department/bureau could maintain professional standards when answering our inquiries. Specifically, we expect answers to each and every one of our questions separately rather than an answer without clearly indicating which questions were addressed.  In case of referencing to websites or documents, we need the specific paragraphs in the source texts that are relevant to our questions to be highlighted. If no information is available regarding some of our questions, please indicate that is the case explicitly so we can follow up properly. We will definitely ask our case to be reviewed by a more senior official in your department/bureau if our request is not properly handled. If it is believed that other department/bureau may possess information we request, please feel free to forward the request including our personal information.