Not too long ago, late 2018, the NZ Government through the State Services Commission required all government agencies to confirm that they meet the newly created Model Standards  which have been implemented as a result of the Thompson & Clark  (T&C) debacle.

Many agencies used T&C or similar security providers to find information on a person or persons using old school investigative techniques and the internet. What was lacking with most engagements were strict terms of reference that would have spelt out the limits of the providers remit and ensured that the provider worked to the same standards/code of conduct as a government employee. As a result, the information collection methods were not entirely in keeping with government agency protocols and policies.

The beauty of using a third party provider is that an agency could task them with providing information (intel) without stipulating the limits on how they were to do so, leaving the security provider to use any means available, while at the same time the agency being (or at least they thought) able to deny any wrongdoing and blaming it on the security provider. This in reality is no different to what NZ’s intelligence agencies (who must work within NZ’s legislation) do. NZ’s 5 eyes partners may not be controlled by similar rules in their own country so are free to assist NZ, and will provide information to NZ intelligence agencies  which cannot legally source the information because our laws don’t permit  what would amount to spying on our own people. The agency is clean, it never did the work and never asked for it (or so they’ll say), but was provided it possibly because it was mentioned in a briefing paper where they’ve expressed concerns etc but that their hands are tied due to NZ’s legislation.

As the saying goes, there is more than one way to skin a cat!

 

Posted on: September 3, 2019, by : Mark