The chief executive of ACC has spoken out this morning about the raft of complaints that have emerged about the organisation in recent months. It has been a year of controversies and complaints around ACC, with boss Ralph Stewart scrambling to apologise earlier this week following the latest privacy breach blunder, which ACC tried to keep private.© 2012 Television New Zealand Ltd
ONE News revealed on Wednesday that an ACC employee sent confidential account information on more than 100 clients to the wrong people. Accounts for overdue levies for 118 ACC clients were mixed up and sent to other clients by mistake last Friday. As a result, inquiries are being conducted by the Privacy Commissioner and the police.
Speaking on TV ONE's Q+A this morning, Stewart said today that he "wishes" that from tomorrow there would be no more privacy breaches but he knows it won't be. The key thing is to declare for ACC that no breaches is our objective".
On the Bronwyn Pullar case, where it was revealed in March that an ACC employee sent confidential details about 6000 clients to claimant Pullar, Stewart said the organisation is looking at the case. "We are managing her case as we can under legislation, and as carefully and sensibly as we can through ACC."
Stewart said the privacy breaches have to be put into context as the organisation handles 1.7 million claims per year. "I think a sense of context helps to understand the privacy issues... Bronwyn is one of 1.7million claims last year."
And while, he would not say what it would take for him to resign, Stewart stressed that privacy is just one of his responsibilities in a complex organisation, and remained optimistic about the public trust in the organisation.
"In terms of public trust and confidence, I believe that ACC has it."
"The buck stops with me," he said.
Stewart listed three areas that the organisation is focusing on to protect client privacy. "We've conducted a complete independent report, now half-way through. It's being conducted by KPMG as experts, and also has on the panel the ex-federal privacy commissioner out of Australia," Stewart told Q A host Paul Holmes this morning.
"It will be completed by June, it will be made public," he said.
"Secondly, in terms of privacy, I think one of the key influences of privacy is development of the digital age. As a consequence we're sending out more files electronically - i.e. attaching things to emails - so we've commissioned a second piece of work to look at the infrastructure at ACC and say 'how can we take this from where we are, in terms of client records and privacy, and take it to world's best practice."
Stewart adds that he has also commissioned "80 privacy champions out of the ACC network to constantly monitor, maintain and raise awareness for privacy in ACC."
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/acc-boss-fronts-up-privacy-breaches-4894783
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