'Ultimately my fault': Minister Jackson on delayed OIAs

Māori Development Minister Willie Jackson says he takes responsibility for mistakes his office made that led to a searing finding from the top transparency watchdog.

The Chief Ombudsman's finding, published yesterday, found human error and a lack of robust processes led to delays by the Minister's office to respond to OIA - Official Information Act - queries.

The investigation covered three OIA requests, all of which involved the Minister's failure to respond to the requester within the maximum timeframe allowed under the law.

The Minister told the Ombudsman that the reasons for the delays and lack of correspondence were due to ‘human error’, resulting from a failure to follow internal OIA processes. The Minister’s office advised that all OIA responses have since been moved to a digital platform that enabled tracking to prevent recurrences of this type of issue.

The Ombudsman found the Minister failed to meet timeliness obligations under the law, to make and communicate a decision on requests as guided by the law, the decision said.

"The Ombudsman wrote directly to the Minister, expressing concern that there had been a trend of human error causing delays in responding to OIA requests in the Minister’s office. He also noted that there had been a consistent lack of responses to correspondence from the Ombudsman’s office and that the lack of compliance with the statutory criteria in all three cases was ‘unacceptable’.

Today, Jackson said he "wasn't too happy with our office either".

"I was let down in my office last year, that's been rectified and there's been an apology... I was as surprised as anyone to find out what had happened.

"We certainly respect the process, that process wasn't adhered to, changes have been made in my office and we're moving forward."

Asked if he took any personal responsibility, Jackson said it was "ultimately my fault".

"I think an apology was given from the office but the reality was there was no intention, we've got good people in there now, the work was done by my office, but we were let down by our own processes. I take responsibility for that."