Dear State Services Commission,

!. On what date was the State Services Commissioner “first” informed of the use of false names being used on documents within MSD WINZ?

2. On discovering the unlawful actions of false name use by MSD staff what action did SSCommissioner take to meet his legislated duties of his paid employment as defined by the State Sector Act as follows in relation to the use of false names at MSD:

“State Sector Act 1A Purpose (c)maintains appropriate standards of integrity and conduct;
“State Sector Act 4A Role of Commissioner (d) working with State services leaders to ensure that the State services maintain high standards of integrity and conduct and are led well and are trusted;
“State Sector Act 4A Role of Commissioner (g) evaluating the performance of Public Service leaders

3. On what date did the State Services Commissioner take his first action to abide by his legislated duties to ensure appropriate standards of integrity and conduct that ensured the State Service, being the MSD, maintained these legislated requirements that would see the MSD being trusted.

4. What were the actions taken by the State Services Commissioner after being informed of false name use on documents?

5. Does the State Services Commissioner feel he acted in accordance with his legislated duties once he was aware of false names being used on documents at MSD?

6. Does the State Services Commissioner understand or have any knowledge of the Crimes Act 66 Parties to offences
(1)
Every one is a party to and guilty of an offence who—
(a)
actually commits the offence; or
(b)
does or omits an act for the purpose of aiding any person to commit the offence; or
(c)
abets any person in the commission of the offence; or
(d)
incites, counsels, or procures any person to commit the offence.
Crimes Act 1961 Interpretation
For the purposes of this section and sections 256 and 263,—
false document means a document—
255
(a)
of which the whole or any material part purports to be made by any person who did not make it, or by a fictitious person; or
(b)
of which the whole or any material part purports to be made by or on behalf of any person who did not authorise its making, or on behalf of a fictitious person; or
(c)
of which the whole or any material part has been altered, whether by addition, insertion, deletion, obliteration, erasure, removal, or otherwise, and that purports to have been altered by or on behalf of a person who did not alter it or authorise its alteration, or by or on behalf of a fictitious person; or
(d)
that is, in whole or in part, a reproduction of any other document, and that purports to have been made by or on behalf of a person who did not make it or authorise its making, or by or on behalf of a fictitious person; or
(e)
that is made in the name of a person, either by that person or by that person’s authority, with the intention that it should pass as being made by some other person who did not make it, or by a fictitious person.
256
Forgery
(1)
Every one is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years who makes a false document with the intention of using it to obtain any property, privilege, service, pecuniary advantage, benefit, or valuable consideration.
(2)
Every one is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 years who makes a false document, knowing it to be false, with the intent that it in any way be used or acted upon, whether in New Zealand or elsewhere, as genuine.
(3)
Forgery is complete as soon as the document is made with the intent described in subsection (1) or with the knowledge and intent described in subsection (2).
(4)
Forgery is complete even though the false document may be incomplete, or may not purport to be such a document as would be binding or sufficient in law, if it is so made and is such as to indicate that it was intended to be acted upon as genuine.
(5)
Every person is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 years who, without reasonable excuse, sells, transfers, or otherwise makes available any false document knowing it to be false and to have been made with the intention that it be used or acted on (in New Zealand or elsewhere) as genuine.
257
Using forged documents
(1)
Every one is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years who, knowing a document to be forged,—
(a)
uses the document to obtain any property, privilege, service, pecuniary advantage, benefit, or valuable consideration; or
(b)
uses, deals with, or acts upon the document as if it were genuine; or
(c)
causes any other person to use, deal with, or act upon it as if it were genuine.
(2)
For the purposes of this section, a document made or altered outside New Zealand in a manner that would have amounted to forgery if the making or alteration had been done in New Zealand is to be regarded as a forged document.

7. A recent OIA response says that the SSCommissioner believes the action he took in regard falsename use was appropriate. The use of false names is not only not lawful as per recentHigh Court ruling in civil matters re Collins J and the Crimes Act above clearly outlaws false name use in the criminal arena. Considering that the State ServicesCommissioner permitted unlawful actions to continue pleasesupply all the information on how the State Services Commissioner and State Services itself met the legislated requiremts above in the handling of the use of false names on formal documents by MSD.

Yours faithfully,

Gregory Soar

Dear Ministerial Services,

Thank you for this update.

I look forward to the information requested by March 11th.

Yours sincerely,

Gregory Soar