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This is a third party appeal under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (the Act). The Ministry of the Solicitor General and Correctional Services (the Ministry) received a request for access to all records relating to the operation and administration of a residence for young offenders. This residence is publicly funded through the Ministry. The requester is a newspaper reporter with an interest in the operations of the residence.
The Ministry located 81 pages of records which were responsive to the request and granted access to most of these pages either in whole or in part. The Ministry decided, however, to withhold certain information from disclosure under sections 14(1)(k), 19 and 21 of the Act. The original requester did not appeal the application of these exemptions and, consequently, the information which the Ministry has previously withheld does not form part of the present appeal.
In the course of processing this request, the Ministry identified a third party whose interests might be affected by the disclosure of the personal information which the Ministry had not previously exempted. This third party (the appellant) has now appealed the Ministry's decision to release the remaining parts of the records to the original requester. The appellant contends that the release of the personal information in question would invade his personal privacy under section 21(1) of the Act.
A notice of inquiry was provided to the Ministry, the appellant and the original requester. Representations were received from all parties except the Ministry which stated that it would not be making any submissions.
The records which remain at issue in this appeal relate to a financial and management audit of the residence undertaken by the Ministry's Review, Audit and Investigations Branch. The purpose of this audit was to investigate (1) the adequacy of management and financial controls within the residence, (2) whether the facility's programs met the Ministry's Residential Service Standards and Guidelines, (3) whether the residence and its officials had appropriately used Ministry funds and (4) the circumstances surrounding a number of escapes from the residence.
The records, themselves, consist of (1) the Ministry's audit report, (2) internal Ministry documents pertaining to the investigation, (3) a job description and (4) various correspondence exchanged between Ministry personnel and officers or employees of the residence. These records are more fully described in Appendix A to this order. It should be noted that pages 28 through 33 of the records are duplicates of pages 61 through 66.
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