Watchdog ticks off ministry

New Zealand’s information watchdog has called out the Health Ministry for stonewalling requests of financial data from the country’s district health boards during the 2017 election campaign.

The ministry failed to be realistic when it decided to deny a request from a Stuff journalist on the basis it would be publicly released ‘‘soon’’, said Ombudsman Peter Boshier.

His decision is in response to a complaint that the ministry had new DHB deficit figures but refused to release them weeks out from election day.

‘‘The figures are still being collated, they’re then reported to the minister and then published. Last year, the July and August results were published on the ministry website on October 19, 2016. We expect a similar timeframe this year,’’ a Health Ministry spokesman said last September.

But that response was unacceptable given the information wasn’t released publicly until December, and the ministry should have anticipated that, the Ombudsman added.

‘‘As of September 15, 2017, the ministry would have been aware that the election was looming and that, due to the need for ministerial input, this could impact on the ministry’s ability to release the information at the time it anticipated.

‘‘Coalition negotiations in an MMP electoral system are a reasonably foreseeable event, and the flow-on effect should have been contemplated.

‘‘I, therefore, am of the view that, while the matter is finely balanced, the ministry did not have sufficient certainty that the information would indeed be released ‘soon’.’’