Details of 'Other Operating Expenses'

The request was partially successful.

Dear University of Salford,

I point you initially to my previous request on this subject, detailed here:

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/fu...

I have had two telephone conversations with the Information Commissioner's Office about this request, and a detailed email explaining the reasoning provided by you as to why the request could not be complied with within the cost limits prescribed under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

The University (you) appear to have taken issue with the specific use of the words "full details". I quote from the email I received from the Information Commissioner's Office:

"The majority of the information you requested is held on the university’s financial system, Agresso. Although a small amount is held on the Salford Software Ltd financial system.

"Each transaction is recorded against a “financial code” which is created from a cost code, a project code and an account code. There were circa 240 operational account codes for non pay items in 2007/2008. Agresso summarises this information into the statutory account format.

"In this case, the university first has to run a transaction report for each of the 240 account codes. This must be done separately for each account as the relations used to summarise the data have been amended since 2007/2008. The university’s financial accountant has estimated that it would take 8 hours to run the reports and reconcile the general ledger data back to the summarised accounts figures for the information held on Agresso.

"The ledger only requires summary detail to allow monitoring of budgets and preparation of accounts. Therefore, as your request was for ‘all details’ the university needs to then review each transaction report in order to identify gaps in the level of detail about specific transactions. If insufficient detail is recorded for a transaction, the university must then retrieve and review the individual invoice. All 2007/2008 invoices have now been archived and are only available on disk which will increase the time it would take to retrieve the relevant information."

With the above in mind, I would like to request 'full details' of all transactions incorporated into the following headings of Page 28, Sub-Heading 7 of the Annual Accounts Report 2008, where these details are readily and easily available without having to manually seek out invoices; in instances where only summary detail is available, I will accept this as an alternative, with a view to potentially submitting further requests about any areas of expenditure which I feel warrant further investigation:

1) Fees and invoiced staff

2) Staff Expenses

3) Student Expenses (I understand 2 and 3 have full details readily available for almost all transactions).

4) Marketing

5) Vehicle and transport costs

6) Consumables

7) Equipment and furniture

8) Fees and Expenses

9) Catering

10) Household expenses

11) Subsidiary company expenditure

Yours faithfully,

Damien Shannon

Foi, University of Salford

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Shannon,

The University has considered your request. Please find attached its response.

Yours sincerely

Matthew Stephenson
Head of Information Governance

University of Salford
3 Acton Square
Salford M5 4WT
t: 0161 295 6856
e: [email address]

Dear Mr Stephenson,

If you have no objections, I am happy to receive the summary detail for now with a view to paying the disbursement stipulated when I am able to visit the University in person.

Please indicate whether this is acceptable to you.

Yours sincerely,

Damien Shannon

Foi, University of Salford

11 Attachments

Dear Mr Shannon,

Further to our correspondence last week relating to your request, please find the summary detail of the annual accounts 2007-8 for the 11 areas requested attached to this email.

If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the right to ask for an internal review. Internal review requests should be submitted to [University of Salford request email].

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF

Yours sincerely

Matthew Stephenson
Head of Information Governance

University of Salford
3 Acton Square
Salford M5 4WT
t: 0161 295 6856
e: [email address]

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