State sector asked for audits

The State Services Commissioner has urged all Government agencies to co-operate with the police pornography inquiry, after it was discovered that 81 of the objectionable images were sent to police staff from within the public sector.

The State Services Commissioner Mark Prebble wrote to all state sector chief executives yesterday asking them to start sector-wide computer audits. Of the approximately 5000 sexually explicit images found stored in police computers, 2000 came from outside the police, mostly from private addresses and businesses.

The police say images held by 30 staff might be legally objectionable, which could result in criminal charges being laid, but could not say whether that might include emails sent from within the public service.

Dr Prebble said he was concerned about the impact the scandal would have on the reputation of "all 250,000 public sector workers".

Asked if he was ordering an imminent sector-wide inquiry, Dr Prebble said he did not have the power to order agencies to take action, but the letter did amount to a "very wide inquiry".

Despite the tough words it remained unclear whether the commission was in fact simply underscoring the need for on-going and frequent audits, which its guidelines already stress are necessary.

Dr Prebble said regular audits were done by Government agencies, but he was unaware of any case on the scale of that revealed by police.

Three years ago when publicity erupted over a High Court judge using a work computer to visit porn sites, it was revealed 11 public service employees had been sacked for computer porn.

Dr Prebble could not say yesterday how many employees had since lost their jobs.

Dr Prebble also said the scandal was "not a moral issue per se".

"The commissioner has said there's serious material here. But actually that isn't the point. The point is that the Government's computer systems should be used for the Government's business and the circulation of what seems to be funny jokes is not what our computer systems are for."

"Someone occasionally sends an email to their mum saying 'I'm going to be at home this weekend'. Of course that's fine. But the computer isn't there for private use at all."