ICO Decision On Payroll & Pension Records
Information Commissioner Gitanjali Gutierrez issued a Decision regarding the Accountant General’s handling of a PATI request for payroll and pension records from 1978 to 1981 related to the requester’s employment with the Government.
The Information Commissioner’s Office said, “On 11 January 2019, Information Commissioner Gitanjali Gutierrez issued her first decision in 2019, Decision 01/2019. This decision concerns the Accountant General’s handling of a PATI request for payroll and pension records from 1978 to 1981 related to the requester’s employment with the Government of Bermuda.
“The Accountant General refused the PATI request under section 16[1][a] of the PATI Act on the basis that the records could not be found after all reasonable steps had been taken to locate them.
“In Decision 01/2019, the Information Commissioner found that the Accountant General’s initial search was not reasonable because it did not search its files stored at the Government Records Centre, where the requested records were potentially located.
“The Information Commissioner, however, acknowledged that the Accountant General agreed to search this location during this Review. The Accountant General concluded that the records responsive to the PATI request could not be found and informed the Applicant of the results of the additional search.
“The Information Commissioner verified the results of the Accountant General’s additional search. The Information Commissioner is satisfied that the records could not be found after the Accountant General took all reasonable steps to locate them. The Information Commissioner does not require the Accountant General to take any further action in response to the Applicant’s PATI request.”
The full Information Commissioner’s Decision 01/2019 follows below [PDF here]:
Ok, but this raises the question of why the records could not be found. What else is missing?>