Information regarding Passport referees
Cody C made this Official Information request to Department of Internal Affairs
The request was successful.
From: Cody C
Dear Department of Internal Affairs,
I am requesting all information relating to Passport referee verification (including documents, manuals, memos, etc.) in accordance with the Official Information Act 1982.
I can appreciate that not all of the information will be able to be provided for security reasons *but* I am more specifically looking for information showing improvements to the verification process following a number of systematic failures
For the purposes of the Act, I am a New Zealand citizen and residing in New Zealand at the time of making this request. You generally have 20 working days to respond to this notice, as required by law. Your response will be published publicly on the fyi.org.nz website.
Yours faithfully,
Cody C
From: Adrienne Watkin
Department of Internal Affairs
Good morning Cody
I acknowledge receipt of your request for information relating to passport
referee verification. As you can appreciate we will not be able to
release all the information for security reasons.
I note that you are specifically looking for information showing
improvements to the verification process following a number of systematic
failures. Are you able to clarify what these systematic failures are?
Yours sincerely
Adrienne Watkin | Advisor | Identity & Passport Services
Department of Internal Affairs
Tel: 0800 22 50 50 | Int'l Tel: +64 4 463 9360 | Fax: +64 4 474 8080
120 Victoria Street | PO Box 1568, Wellington 6140, New
Zealand|www.dia.govt.nz
[1]http://www.dia.govt.nz/diawebsite.nsf/Fi...
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From: Cody C
Dear Adrienne Watkin,
I am referring to instances where a member of the public has been able to deceptively / unlawfully obtain a legitimate NZ-issued Passport due to failures in the referee / witness checking process when making applications.
Yours sincerely,
Cody C
From: Adrienne Watkin
Department of Internal Affairs
I will be back in the office on Tues 26 April 2016. For anything urgent
please email [email address]
From: Adrienne Watkin
Department of Internal Affairs
Dear Cody C
Please find attached the response to your request.
Yours sincerely
Adrienne Watkin | Advisor | Identity & Passport Services
Department of Internal Affairs
Tel: 0800 22 50 50 | Int'l Tel: +64 4 463 9360 | Fax: +64 4 474 8080
120 Victoria Street | PO Box 1568, Wellington 6140, New
Zealand|www.dia.govt.nz
[1]http://www.dia.govt.nz/diawebsite.nsf/Fi...
References
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From: Cody C
Dear Adrienne Watkin,
Thank you for your response. However, there has been no reason given for the refusal of the request. Can you please provide this? I would also appreciate the information being released as I would like to imagine the Department has since remedied any issues that would give the potential for any fraud to occur in this respect and thus there would be no security risk.
Yours sincerely,
Cody C
From: Cody C
Dear Adrienne Watkin,
I was expecting a response as per your email by July 15 but have not received this. You are now outside the timeframe of the Official Information Act. Please respond immediately or this may be referred to the Ombudsman.
You may have also breached the OIA by not specifying the section of the OIA that the request was refused under.
Yours sincerely,
Cody C
From: Joseph Tuohy
Department of Internal Affairs
Dear Cody C
In response to your Official Information Act request to the Department of
Internal Affairs requesting information showing improvements to the
referee verification process the Department would like to apologise for
the delay in making this information available to you. We are working to
identify documentation that would fall under the scope of your request and
have identified a large number of documents. As such we would like to work
with you to further define the scope of your request to ensure that you
receive the specific information you are looking for. As you no doubt
appreciate, providing all documents related to the referee verification
process would constitute a large collation process and may not satisfy
your request. Please contact me directly on [1][email address] so
we can collaborate to get you the best outcome possible.
Kind regards
Joe Tuohy | Advisor
Identity and Passport Services | Te Mata Uruwhenua
Department of Internal Affairs Te Tari Taiwhenua
0800 22 50 50 | +64 (4) 463 9360 | [2]www.dia.govt.nz
[3]Real Me Logo Signature
Small [4]http://www.dia.govt.nz/diawebsite.nsf/Fi...
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1. mailto:[email address]
2. http://www.dia.govt.nz/
From: Cody C
Dear Joseph Tuohy,
I am happy with receiving just the most recent information on what has been changed in the last 5 years to ensure that the referee process used in assessing passport applications has been secured or improved (paying particular reference to incidences where passports have been obtained fraudulently with invalid, or otherwise, referees).
Yours sincerely,
Cody C
From: Joseph Tuohy
Department of Internal Affairs
Dear Cody
Thank you for your response. This email is to acknowledge receipt of your request.
Kind regards
Joe Tuohy | Advisor
Identity and Passport Services | Te Mata Uruwhenua
Department of Internal Affairs Te Tari Taiwhenua
0800 22 50 50 | +64 (4) 463 9360 | www.dia.govt.nz
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From: Joseph Tuohy
Department of Internal Affairs
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Dear Cody C
Please find the attached response to your New Zealand passport enquiry.
Kind regards
Joe Tuohy | Advisor
Identity and Passport Services | Te Mata Uruwhenua
Department of Internal Affairs Te Tari Taiwhenua
0800 22 50 50 | +64 (4) 463 9360 | [1]www.dia.govt.nz
[2]Real Me Logo Signature
Small [3]http://www.dia.govt.nz/diawebsite.nsf/Fi...
References
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1. http://www.dia.govt.nz/
From: Cody C
Dear Joseph Tuohy,
Thank you very much. Your reply has answered my questions.
Yours sincerely,
Cody C
From: Joseph Tuohy
Department of Internal Affairs
Hello,
I am currently out of the office and will be returning on 23 January 2017.
For any urgent enquiries please contact the Department of Internal Affairs
contact centre on 0800 22 5050 or from outside of New Zealand +6444639360
Thank you,
Joe Tuohy
Advisor
Department of Internal Affairs
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