Sect 108 doesn’t require that the Owners Corporation (O/C) supplies records as your friend’s letter requires, but rather only that the O/C makes these available for inspection by your friend or by somebody else (such as under a strata inspection) with your friends prior written authorisation, and only then after the pre-payment of the prescribed fee ($31 for the first hour) to the O/C.
I know that sounds like a whole lot of bureaucracy, but I’m afraid that when dealing with one such as the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT), what amounts to a slightly miss-worded request and some contrived confusion about about payment can derail the entire process.
So ask your friend to send a short letter of clarification to the Secretary of the Executive Committee pointing out that they wish to inspect the records of the O/C and specifically the items listed in the original letter, that they will bring with them a cheque in the amount of the prescribed payment to the O/C, and that given their previous correspondence, if a date/time for the inspection is not notified within say 7 days of the date of the letter, then a Application for Orders requiring the requested documents to be made available will be imediately sought under Sect 156 of the NSW Strata Schemes Management Act (1996).
Given what you’ve previously advised regarding the (non) management of your friend’s Plan, I’d suggest they concurrently make an Application for Mediation of what amounts to a dispute, at this stage over the non-provision of documents and records of the O/C.
A later stage may well involve a further Application for the compulsory appointment of Strata Manager (not as you again mention a “managing agent”) that by the way does not require prior Mediation, but albeit necessary that’s a big step to initiate because as you’ll read HERE, a Strata Manager that’s appointed by a NCAT Adjudicator is charged (and charge$ the O/C) to act absolutely in accordance with the terms of that appointment, which in some respects may not be in the broader interests of the individual members of the O/C (i.e. your friend and the other Owners).