Sir Brian Roche: Public Service Commissioner on the changes to come for Government agencies after Manurewa Marae inquiry

A new standard for Government agencies handling data will be set after today's bombshell report.

The Public Service Commission has released a report detailing failures by Stats NZ, Health NZ and the Ministry of Health. 

It's after allegations surfaced in June that Census and Covid vaccination data was inappropriately used at Manurewa Marae.

It's highlighted a lack of safeguards - even when concerns were raised within Stats NZ, whose acting head is now stepping down. 

It found agencies also failed to address conflicts-of-interest by providers working with Covid data. 

Commissioner Sir Brian Roche says contracting requirements for third-parties will change. 

"We are just being clear about the duty of care required on people who access public money to discharge services."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good evening.

Speaker 2 (00:00):
It is seven after five views. Talk said, the government
agencies have been caught doing a bit of a spray
and walk away with personal data. So the State Services
Commission has a report out today and it's found that
public service agencies shared personal information of us kiwi's with
third party agencies without any safeguards. Stats nd ZED, Health
end Zed, the Ministry of Health all in for a bolocking.

(00:21):
So Brian wroaches the State Service Commissioner. He's with me
this evening, Good evening, Good ending, Ryan. The MANUABAMRII, the
wipeper Aid of Trust and the Farno Order Commissioning Agency.
Can they be trusted with public money?

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Yes, so you currently have public money. I think the
issue that was highlighted in the review that we were
found to not have all of the protections in place
that we need in a new operating environment, and that's
what we're seeking to change.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
So will will they get public money going forward?

Speaker 1 (00:56):
I think so that's very much an issue for the agency's.
My jurisdic is actually how the agencies provides money to
serve parties. I don't have a direct relationship with those,
but the principle that we're adopting here is that when
you are in receipt of public money, there is a
duty of care and obligation to the taxpayer to have

(01:16):
certain minimum standards around it on data sharing and conflicts
of interest management.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
And this report shows that some pretty big government agencies
didn't have those.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
This report does show that, as I've said publicly, this
is a very sobering report to read, that it was
unacceptable what was done. We left open the fact that
public that private information could have been compromised. That's just
an unacceptable thing from where I sit.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
What's the consequence, Well.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
The consequences the Chief Executive has decided, you know, to
not renew as contract. That's a very high sanction. The
other content sequences are that we are going to change
the way that we contract with third parties and we
will impose certain standards on them. We will be open
to criticism as being bureaucratic. We are not being bureaucratic.

(02:13):
We are just being clear about the duty of care
required on people who access public money to discharge services.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
And this is what I was getting at before. So
in the case of Manydow and Marian and the White
Data Trust, going forward, will they be able to get
contracts or do they have to prove something to departments
before they can do that.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
They, like all other people who receive money, will have
to actually comply with the new contract standards, which we
hope to be operative from one July. That will be
a decision for them whether they choose to do that
or not. That is not something for me to decide.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
And what is the requirement around conflicts of interest in
your new standards?

Speaker 1 (02:58):
We're just not greater transparency and the ability to follow
betrayal to assure ourselves that when you've got public money,
you have a duty of care to maintain certain standards.
Conflicts of interests is one of them. I think that
is a very generally accepted contractual requirement.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
Is it appropriate to have the boss of an agency
receiving money also the president of a political party.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
We live in a very small country where people have
multiple roles. Ultimately, that's the matter for the agency who
is contracting them to satisfy themselves on.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
This has been a long time coming, this report, Sir Brian.
Were you surprised at just how loose the back end
was here from some of our departments?

Speaker 1 (03:46):
Oh? Yeah, it was, but you know, I've said publicly
that this, particularly with respect to this Department of Statistics,
it was a systemic failure. You know, they breached a
threshold of seriousness which ended up and the chief executive
deciding to leave and US having to make quite significant
changes across the public sector. You know, it is a

(04:08):
very valuable learning lesson for us. It has taken a
long time. It's a complex area, but it's one that
I'm comfortable that we've reached in the right position at
the end.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
So Brian, thank you very much for your times. So
Brian writes the State Services Commissioner eleven after five. For
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