SIS failed with Wilce clearance
January 28th, 2011 at 3:30 pm by David FarrarThe SSC report in the vetting of Stephen Wilce has been released.
The State Services Commissioner notes the following lapses by the SIS:
- that NZSIS did not check with counterpart overseas agencies to see what they knew about Mr Wilce. This was contrary to standard practice in cases where the applicant for a security clearance had worked overseas;
- that NZSIS did not follow up on Mr Wilce’s failure to disclose convictions once the Police check had revealed that he had convictions; and
- that NZSIS did not record or follow up on information received on Mr Wilce after the announcement of his appointment in the NZDF
I have to say these are pretty massive lapses. I mean they discover he had undsiclosed convictions and they did nothing. They had information supplied to them he wasn’t legit and they did nothing.
The SSC concludes:
The Director of NZSIS accepts the findings of both Mr Walter and the Court of Inquiry. He also accepts my finding that the anomalies occurring in Mr Wilce’s vetting process amounted to failings by the NZSIS in the provision of a professional security service.
That is a pretty big slap.
John Key notes:
“The State Services Commissioner has said further action needs to be taken to demonstrate confidence in the vetting system, and he will report back to me in the first half of this year. I have also asked a group of senior officials to closely monitor progress around this issue,” says Mr Key.
Two key initiatives will underpin the programme of action. An independent, international review of the current vetting system, along with other work, will be started in order to provide better information on the vetting system’s performance. In addition, the Director of Security is currently sampling 5 per cent of the Top Secret vettings undertaken at the time Mr Wilce was checked to provide an assurance that the failures were an exceptional event.
We were lucky that the failures only let through a braggart, rather than someone hostile to NZ’s interests.
Related posts:
- Inquiry into Wilce hiring
- The Wilce Inquiry Report
- A further inquiry re Wilce is needed
- The Wilce claims
January 28th, 2011 at 7:56 pm
This is hopeless. Heads should roll. Prediction: they won’t; the government will continue to burn a ton of money; the country will stay poor.
Vote:January 28th, 2011 at 7:59 pm
NOT JUST THE SIS EITHER. THE PUBLIC SERVICE GENERALLY.
Vote:MARYANNE THOMPSON RING ANY BELLS.
And I bet there many more yet to be uncovered.
January 28th, 2011 at 8:03 pm
We were lucky that the failures only let through a braggart
Hopefully we were the only country he was bragging to.
Vote:January 28th, 2011 at 8:20 pm
NZ is just now falling off the back of the turnip truck coming into town for market. By the time we realise that village idiots, golden handshakes and honest burghurs aren’t as reliable as they were, it’s too late to be credible. I worry.
Vote:January 28th, 2011 at 8:33 pm
@ Ben; the heads who should roll are no longer the heads
Vote:January 28th, 2011 at 8:52 pm
He is such a blow hard..how did anyone believe him? The worry is the people who did question his credentials but weren’t listened to. For years , there was the old story about Poms inventing their qualifications on the way over on the boat. Incredible that his overseas experience was never verified. Even for very low paying jobs in NZ , people have to be police vetted and reference checked. This is a monumental failure and should be treated as such.
Vote:January 28th, 2011 at 9:01 pm
Now..imagine if this man had been appointed under Key’s term as minister for the SIS, imagine how loud the calls would be from the Labour benches for Key to resign.
So…why is our media letting Klark off scott free?
Or…is Wilce the real reason Klark was so determined to close down the SIS, did she know that Wilce is a con man, did she try and cover it up?
I suspect the answer to those questions is yes.
Vote:January 28th, 2011 at 9:15 pm
Yes bruv, my good friend Adolf over at No Minister sums it up well.
http://nominister.blogspot.com/2011/01/who-was-minister-responsible.html
Vote:January 28th, 2011 at 10:16 pm
“We were lucky that the failures only let through a braggart, rather than someone hostile to NZ’s interests.”
That we’re aware of, in light of these revelations I would hope that the SIS are reviewing the security checks of anybody else employed over the same time period.
Vote:January 28th, 2011 at 10:35 pm
5% of TSVs is a pretty low sample and is so small that I doubt they will disclose anything. I presume this is very Labour intensive work but there should be a much larger sample for people working on the most sensitive work. It would be fairly easy to do a police computer check on all people with a TSV. And why check over just the same period. This suggests something quite wrong in a certain time frame. Sounds like since the ending of the cold war things have got extremely slack.
Vote:January 28th, 2011 at 10:58 pm
We were lucky that the failures only let through a braggart, rather than someone hostile to NZ’s interests.
Clark! Cullen! Christ, what more damage could he do?
Vote:January 29th, 2011 at 6:53 am
Where is the accountability here? The (ir)responsible staff should be sacked.
Vote:January 29th, 2011 at 7:15 am
meanwhile, corrupt NZ bumbles on…
Vote:January 29th, 2011 at 7:45 am
I assume Helen Clark has better vetters, and that she checks them, at the UN?
Then again, you have to be a supreme bullshitter to get a job at the UN, nothing else gets hired.
Vote:January 29th, 2011 at 8:14 am
Who else slipped through the cracks under the watch of the Clark government, and who remains? An audit of the senior public service would seem to be in order.
Vote:January 29th, 2011 at 8:38 am
EGYPT REVOLUTION 29 Jan 2011:
Developments in Egypt today are interesting. Egypt is a key Islamic nation in terms of being a bridge between the West and Islamic MEast. If its citizens led by Cairo are able to take control of their govt., it is a worry what comes next, ie who steps into the leadership vacuum (viz Stalin follows Lenin). It is always the subsequent leadership that is of importance. The Muslim Brotherhood will probably intervene, they are organized, and also watch Hizbollah (active in Iraq, Iran and Lebanon) who act as a shadow Govt. in many countries.
What this could mean is, that we could lose a stable West-friendly Egypt, replaced by a more extreme Islamic reactionary regime, perhaps even a Sharia administration. My own pick, is that Mubarak will cut a deal, lesson tensions, and EG will stumble forward but short of full revolution. It seems it is an uncoordinated citizen (youth)-led anarchy with no coordinated strategy to take: the Palace, the Power Stations, the Broadcasting Bldg, etc.
Inevitably the army will probably regain control if this is just an expanded street fight.
Vote: