Premier’s Office to privacy commissioner: LOL

Privacy Commissioner says Premier’s Office needs to pass along instant messages in access to information questions

The Premier’s Office appears to have been deleting text messages as a way to escape answering access to information requests.

The CBC filed an access to information request asking the Premier’s Office (PO) for Blackberry messages sent from April 21 to present between members of the premier’s senior staff.

The date range was chosen to see what senior staff members were saying about emerging allegations of harassment made against former Liberal cabinet ministers Eddie Joyce and Dale Kirby.

The PO said there were no records corresponding to the request.

The CBC then asked Privacy Commissioner Donovan Molloy to investigate.

The Office of the Chief Information Officer’s rules on instant messages are that they’re not to be used to conduct government business; they’re called “transitory records,” which means they don’t have to be saved and should be deleted regularly.

However, should instant messages evolve “to include content reflective of government business,” then the records are required to be turned into a proper record and kept.

In addition, if an access to information request comes in, staff are required to stop deleting their texts and emails, so the records can be searched to see if they have any information relevant to the access to information request.

The PO said once the request was received from CBC, it didn’t give direction to stop deleting messages, but staff are generally aware to stop deleting once a request comes in.

Once CBC’S request was filed, it took senior staff over two weeks to respond to PO access to information co-ordinator Joy Buckle’s request that they search their devices for responses to the access to information request.

The PO did not explain why it took staff so long to have a glance through their devices.

The PO says there was no directive to delete any messages as a result of the access request. But there was also no effort to save the messages either.

“There were no BBMS or PINS transferred to another medium during this period. For clarity, if a BBM message or PIN had been transferred to another medium, it would have been considered a responsive record to this request and it would have been provided to the applicant,” reads the Premier’s Office response.

“As noted in the final response to the applicant, there were no responsive records to this request.”

In his report, Molloy says part of the problem is the wording of the rules around instant messages and government business — he says there’s a loophole that could be exploited.

“The wording of that document is presently such that it is open to an interpretation, by those in public bodies who might view instant messaging as a way of avoiding accountability and transparency, as an ideal means to accomplish that goal,” reads the report.

Molloy has ordered the PO to review its policies on instant messages and access to information, with a formal response required in the next 10 days.