Information Commissioner welcomes improvement in universities compliance with contract registers under the GIPA Act
NSW Information Commissioner and Open Data Advocate Elizabeth Tydd has commended the outcomes of the follow-up proactive regulatory initiative report Universities’ Compliance with the GIPA Act: Audit Report 2016 on universities’ compliance with the GIPA Act contract register requirements.
View the Universities’ Compliance with the GIPA Act: Audit Report 2016.
“I am pleased to confirm that the Report identifies that universities' compliance with the contract register provisions of the GIPA Act has matured significantly since the 2015 compliance audit. Contract registers across the university sector can now capture on average 21 per cent more obligations than in 2015 and the information contained on these contract registers are on average 17 per cent more complete than in 2015,” said Ms Tydd.
“These improvements demonstrate the effectiveness of the Information and Privacy Commission’s (IPC) regulatory engagement and preparedness by the sector to improve performance.”
The Report sets out the review of findings of the Information Commissioner’s follow-up audit of NSW universities’ compliance with Part 3 Division 5 of the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (GIPA Act) which deals with mandatory disclosure of government contracts with the private sector. This includes a desktop audit of the current contracts registers of NSW universities, analysis of the progress made by individual universities in their contracts register, and benchmarks the performance of the universities against their previous year’s results.
“The IPC will continue to work with the sector and more broadly with other sectors, co-regulators and with the Audit Office to ensure transparency through a collaborative regulatory approach, to promote the proactive release of contracts, and to assist agencies in their stewardship and governance of their significant enterprises,” said Ms Tydd.
Additionally the IPC is committed to developing and releasing information and guidance to elevate sector wide performance and compliance, with the first educational resource on compliance with contracts registers under the GIPA Act to be published in the coming weeks.
For more information about the Report or to request an interview with the NSW Information Commissioner please contact Kate Jobling at ipcinfo@ipc.nsw.gov.au or call (02) 8071 7018 or 0435 961 691.
