The Swamp Report

13 August 2012

Minister furious over ACC's privacy stance

An article from Stuff by John Hartevelt

ACC Minister Judith Collins wants the state insurer to start sacking staff who breach a new "zero tolerance" policy on privacy breaches.
A furious Ms Collins has revealed her astonishment at the failure of ACC to include privacy among nine of its "top priorities".
"I'm not going to sit back and let one of the most important government entities [that] we have let people down time and time again around things such as privacy.
"They have to act in the way that I expect them to act. When I go around the branches, most of the people there absolutely understand it.
"But, actually, a few are letting them down and when we have things like the audit and risk committee having nine priorities for the year and not one of them [being] privacy, how can that be acceptable given everything else that's going on?"
Ms Collins' comments come as figures from ACC show 11 staff members have been reprimanded over "serious misconduct" since 2010. The breaches involved: theft; fraud against ACC or a claimant; serious misuse of ACC property, including information and systems; dishonesty; disobeying a lawful and reasonable instruction from a manager; and any act that had the potential to bring ACC into disrepute. Nine staff were sacked as a result of the breaches and two were given final written warnings.
Ms Collins said while the serious misconduct cases were "a shame", she was pleased they were taken seriously and not covered up. "I think that they need to be - and they are now - taking on a culture of zero tolerance to privacy breaches, in particular," she said.
Police had a "zero tolerance" approach to staff accessing private details about people without good reason.
"People lose their jobs over it, and that's something that I think ACC needs to have, which is that we have people's very personal information, we should treat it with respect and should understand it's a very privileged position."
ACC has been under siege over repeated privacy breaches since March, when it was revealed the private details of 6500 clients were accidentally sent to claimant Bronwyn Pullar. The revelation sparked a string of controversies, culminating in three inquiries and the resignations of Cabinet minister Nick Smith, board chairman John Judge, chief executive Ralph Stewart and three other board members. Separate inquiries by the privacy commissioner and the auditor-general will be released within weeks.
Ms Collins said she expected the new board members, including a new chairperson, to be in place "just after that".
"When I reappoint or appoint people to the board, that has to be someone who is going to be able to spend the time necessary in bringing about the cultural change that I expect from ACC . . . We need to do an awful lot around the culture of customer service and respect towards members of the public that I know most of our staff are providing."
Green MP Kevin Hague said even basic data protection systems at ACC still appeared to be hopeless.
"When every other state agency, let alone private sector organisation, was busily doing its best to protect data and figure out how to keep people's privacy protected, how come ACC, an organisation that was dealing with some of the most sensitive information out there in the state sector, was effectively doing nothing? I suspect that their focus has been not on meeting client needs. I think their focus has been on their financial result . . . thinking about clients as liabilities rather than people to whom they owe service."

11 August 2012

Call for bipartisan agreement on ACC

An article from the Otago Daily Times by John Gibb

Only a bipartisan political agreement about how ACC will operate in future can ultimately restore the public's trust and confidence in the corporation, Dunedin ACC campaigner Dr Denise Powell says.
Recently-released figures showing rapidly dropping numbers of Otago long-term ACC claimants over the past year and growing review applications by claimants challenging ACC decisions were a "wake-up call" over ACC's future, Dr Powell said.
"It's like a line in the sand," she said.
"It's reached the point where the person in the street is asking what's going on."
Otago Daily Times inquiries show the number of long-term claimants in Otago fell more than 15%, from 1199 on June 30 last year to 1014 at the equivalent date this year. This was the biggest one-year change in long-term Otago long-term claimant numbers for at least five years.
ACC officials recently said "long-term claimants" had been receiving weekly earnings-related compensation for a year or more. The number of reviews of ACC decisions sought by Otago-based claimants rose at least 5%, from more than 430 on June 30 last year to more than 450 at the same stage this year, other figures show.
Dr Powell said the community's faith that individuals would receive their fair entitlement under the scheme had been badly shaken, and ACC had been used as a "political football" for too long, including during recent cost-cutting.
ACC figures indicate national long-term claimant numbers fell more than 3600, or 25%, to about 10,626 over the past three financial years. Government officials have also highlighted the need to maintain the scheme's financial viability.
ACC officials say the national "long-term claims pool" has been reducing for several reasons, and improved "focused rehabilitation" by ACC within their first year of weekly compensation payments meant fewer people were becoming long-term claimants.
At an Institute of Actuaries of Australia conference in Brisbane late last year, a New Zealand actuary who has worked closely with ACC, said there was "constant tension between the two sides of politics" in New Zealand, which was reflected in the ACC scheme. Labour governments typically increased access to benefits, but this had been "to some degree reversed" under National, since 2009, given concerns about ACC finances, the actuary said.
In a recent letter to the ACC board, accompanying the latest service agreement signed between the Government and ACC, ACC Minister Judith Collins emphasised the need for the board and management to "rebuild" public trust in ACC and ensure individual claimants received their fair entitlements. She also expected the board to "monitor carefully the numbers and outcomes" of claims disputes, and wanted to see "more disputes resolved satisfactorily" without the need for formal independent resolution.
Dr Powell noted that a broad agreement between the Government and the Opposition had developed about the way much of the KiwiSaver superannuation scheme was operating. If public trust in ACC was to be restored, as Mrs Collins had sought, an agreement between New Zealand's main political parties about how ACC would operate in future was ultimately needed, she said.

http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/221091/call-bipartisan-agreement-acc

© Allied Press Ltd 2012

10 August 2012

ACC faces new privacy breach claim

An article from the New Zealand Herald by Adam Bennett

The Accident Compensation Corporation is investigating another potential privacy breach which may be similar to the gaffe that saw details of thousands of claimants sent to Bronwyn Pullar last year.
This week, a member of the online ACC claimants' discussion group ACCforum posted that they had requested their "IT Sweep" - a record of which ACC staff had accessed their electronic file. However, with that information they also received "a list of names regarding review dates and reason for review and claim numbers".
After the post generated a strong response from other members, the claimant offered an assurance they would not share the data with anyone else and were now being advised by a lawyer.
Almost a year ago, ACC claimant and former National Party insider Bronwyn Pullar was mistakenly sent a file containing information about thousands of other claimants whose cases had been reviewed in the previous year. ACC plunged into a far-reaching scandal after Ms Pullar went to the media with the file this year.
Yesterday, ACC's privacy officer, Miriama Alexander, responded to the ACCforum post. "If you've received information not about you, ACC needs to recover the information so we can contact the clients whose information has been released. We'll also advise the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of any breach," she wrote.
Last night, an ACC spokeswoman confirmed the corporation was investigating the potential breach, but had been unable to identify the claimant.
Since the Pullar affair came to light in March, ACC has been hit by a string of further privacy breaches. Last month, the Herald reported that a former Auckland builder was sent a document about a Te Atatu brain injury victim among papers about his own case.

03 August 2012

Wiped data claim fuels war of words

An article from the Dominion POst by Phil Kitchin and Vernon Small

Tensions between ACC Minister Judith Collins and former ACC chairman John Judge have boiled over in public after claims an investigation into a leaked email had been hampered because Mr Judge had replaced his computer and wiped data.
Mr Judge yesterday described the claims as "pathetic".
Ms Collins said she did not know whether the inquiry by Privacy Commissioner Marie Shroff had been delayed or hampered, and had not said that. But she would not descend to "name calling".
The war of words came after Ms Collins confirmed, in response to an Official Information Act request, that Mr Judge had destroyed or replaced his home computer in April, after an inquiry was launched into how an email, sent by former National Party president Michelle Boag to Ms Collins, was leaked. The email related to ACC whistleblower Bronwyn Pullar, who was at the centre of a mass ACC privacy breach. Ms Collins is taking defamation action against Labour MPs Trevor Mallard and Andrew Little over suggestions the leak came from her office.
Asked in the OIA if she had information that Mr Judge's computer had been destroyed, Ms Collins said: "Yes, the information I have received is that Mr Judge's home computer was replaced in April this year."
But yesterday she had received "slightly different" details.
Mr Judge said yesterday that Ms Collins was aware he had replaced his home computer before Mrs Shroff's inquiry was announced and all its data was copied to the new one. His personal computer was replaced in April as part of a routine upgrade. The replacement process began in February when he obtained quotes. As a security measure, redundant material still on his old computer was cleared, before he disposed of it.
"There is nothing untoward in what I did. I had deleted the emails received from the minister's office shortly after I received them."
It was his practice to delete emails not directly relevant to him in the future and where they were held by the organisation with which he was involved.
Mr Judge said he was also provided with an iPad by ACC, which was wiped and handed back to ACC in June. But it was not "synched" to ACC's computer systems nor to Mr Judge's personal computer. It did not receive emails related to the leak.
He had co-operated fully and his personal computer was available to the Shroff inquiry. He had not copied, printed or forwarded any email received from Ms Collins' office.
Outgoing ACC boss Ralph Stewart backed up Mr Judge.
Meanwhile, information provided by Ms Collins has revealed further tensions between her and Mr Judge in March, about the time the leak was made public. In a letter to him on March 27, she said she was concerned ACC made no reference to privacy issues in its draft plan for the year.
"I advised you that I had serious concerns about the level of commitment across ACC to protecting the privacy of claimants' information," she said.
The letter also ticked him off for seeking a law change as a precursor to privatisation.
"I have not suggested this change and made it perfectly clear to you in our meeting on 10 February, when you raised this matter, that this would not be happening."
Labour ACC spokesman Mr Little said Ms Collins was out of line commenting on the Shroff inquiry and should step aside as justice minister until it was was over.

02 August 2012

Ex-chair's moves slow ACC probe, says Collins

An article from the New Zealand Herald by Adam Bennett

Investigations into the source of a crucial leak of information about the Bronwyn Pullar ACC scandal have been hampered by the corporation's former chairman, John Judge, replacing or wiping his computers, according to ACC Minister Judith Collins.
But Ms Collins says she has no evidence that Mr Judge leaked the email, and Mr Judge yesterday stood by his earlier denials that he was the source of the leak.
Privacy Commissioner Marie Shroff in late March began an investigation into how the email identifying Ms Pullar as the Accident Compensation Corporation claimant at the centre of a privacy scandal at the ACC was leaked to the Herald on Sunday. The email Ms Collins received from former National Party president Michelle Boag helped to end her colleague Nick Smith's ministerial career.
Ms Boag, as well as all recipients of the email - including Ms Collins, ACC chief executive Ralph Stewart and Mr Judge - have denied leaking the email.
But Ms Collins told the Herald last night that the email from Ms Boag was forwarded to Mr Judge's personal and only email account. She had been advised by ACC that Mr Judge had his home computer replaced some time in April, and his old one "is no longer able to be accessed".
"In addition, I've now been advised that Mr Judge was given an iPad from ACC ... and that iPad was wiped clean by Mr Judge's computer expert before it was returned to ACC in June."
Ms Collins told the Herald: "I am aware now that that is an issue around being able to access the forensic data which would normally be on the computer."
Ms Collins said she could make no further comment because the matter was still subject to the Privacy Commissioner's inquiry.
Mr Judge was unavailable to respond to Ms Collins comments last night but earlier yesterday said he did "absolutely not" leak the email.
The email was among documents submitted by ACC to police to support a complaint it made against Ms Pullar. ACC alleged that at a December meeting she and Ms Boag attempted to strike a deal to exchange the private information of thousands of other ACC claimants mistakenly emailed to Ms Pullar in return for a guaranteed benefit for her.
But in early June police said they would not lay charges against Ms Pullar. A few days later Ms Collins effectively forced Mr Judge and two other board members out of their jobs.
Mr Stewart announced his resignation shortly after although he is expected to remain in his job until the end of the year.