SSC Inquiry into use of external security consultants by government agencies

It is not our usual practice to use external security consultants for surveillance purposes.

However there have been a handful of cases over the last decade or so where it has been necessary to do so, primarily in relation to fraud.

The State Services Commission Inquiry into the use of external security consultants has raised concerns in relation to our use of private investigators in one particular case, which was not fraud-related,  the White case. This was a 2007 civil court case, alleging abuse in state care, involving the use of private investigators by Crown Law on behalf of MSD. 

We accept the Inquiry’s findings about this case.

Crown Law had the primary responsibility for managing the litigation and instructing the private investigators, and was found to be in breach of the Code of Conduct. The Ministry of Social Development was found to be in breach at the lower end, recognising Crown Law’s lead role in the case.

We accept there should have been clear controls in place that would prevent any possibility of inappropriate surveillance, and that we should have asked for such controls from Crown Law.

We should have done better and we apologise for this.

We understand the Solicitor General will also be making a statement in relation to the Inquiry’s findings and what steps they will be taking. We will support the Solicitor-General to implement any changes in practice in litigation that MSD is involved with.

We are confident our current practice is consistent with the model standards issued today by the SSC, Information Gathering and Public Trust, and we will be publishing our policies on this in line with the directive from the State Services Commissioner.

The Inquiry raised no concerns about the small number of other cases where MSD had used private investigators for surveillance. These were primarily in order to investigate fraud or suspected fraud.

(Note: the private investigator in this case was not Thompson and Clark Limited, nor have we used TCIL at other times.)

Stephen Crombie
Deputy Chief Executive for Corporate Solutions