No sanction against civil servant who lost data in bookstore
Wednesday December 30 2009
A CIVIL servant who improperly printed out personal information stored on a government database and then lost the documents in a bookstore has had no sanctions imposed on her.
The government worker did not even realise the documents were missing until they were posted back to her by store managers, the Irish Independent has learned.
The fact that no sanction was imposed comes just a week after it was revealed that another worker in the Department of Social and Family Affairs, who improperly looked at 27,000 records in one year, was allowed to retire on his full pension.
In the latest case, it was initially decided that the employee would be deducted one increment for a one-year period.
However, she appealed the decision, saying she looked up the records because of concerns that fraud was being committed. She also claimed any information was general and was "available to every citizen in the State and beyond".
Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that she told her employers: "In light of my submissions, I feel the sanctions being brought against me are not accepted, as my one and only real infringement was accidentally losing customers' records out in the public domain. I feel I don't deserve to be treated so harshly."
The sanction was immediately rescinded and she was reminded about the department's responsibilities in relation to customer data and ensuring confidentiality.
The civil servant searched for and printed the information after a landlord contacted her asking if former tenants were "signing on" and falsely using the flat as their address.
The documents were later found lying on the floor at the Eason store in O'Connell Street, Dublin. It contained detailed information on two 'customers' of the Department of Social and Family Affairs.
However, an internal investigation into how the sensitive data was left in a public place was not launched until six months later.
The documents -- which were found in the store on September 15 last year -- also contained personal items belonging to the female worker, which allowed Eason's management to identify her and return the papers to here. But she did not even remember losing the items.
Wrongdoing
The woman admitted her wrongdoing and said she did so after being contacted by the landlord about two former tenants, one of whom was working part time and the other who was not claiming benefits.
The employee claimed she looked at the records from a "control perspective in the interest of the department" because the landlord believed one tenant was fraudulently claiming welfare from an address at which he no longer resided and the other was fraudulently claiming welfare while in employment.
The report told her: "You are expected to use customer information only for the purpose for which it was collected and only access customer details for business related purposes. Any breaches of these guidelines are taken very seriously."
The customers whose information was found were not made aware of the breach.
- Edel Kennedy
Irish Independent
