The NZ Transport Agency has been caught up in the controversy surrounding private investigators Thompson and Clark’s surveillance of New Zealanders.
Thompson and Clark used the Motor Vehicle Register to match names of environmentalists undertaking lawful activities with number plates more than 4000 times since 2011.
Many of those searches are likely to have been illegal, according to a State Services Commission report.
In other cases, Thompson and Clark says it was helping government agencies enforce the Crown Minerals Act.
NZTA’s monitoring of the register’s use for such purposes has been criticised by the State Services Commission.
“The inquiry looked at NZTA and whether they were supplying effective oversight of access to the Motor Vehicle Register, and we concluded that they were not,” inquiry co-author Simon Mount says.
A check done by NZTA in 2013 didn’t raise any red flags, RNZ reports.
However, Thompson and Clark came under closer scrutiny when the company tried to renew its MVR access and broaden it to investigate those undertaking lawful activities in the oil, gas and energy sectors.
“NZTA were aware that their administration of those databases was loose,” says the inquiry report’s co-author Doug Martin.
“They’d had a major report, which identified many of the shortcomings and they were, to be fair, moving to tighten up in the last 12 to 18 months.”
The register can be used for purposes like investigating criminal offences.
Thompson and Clark were also found to have misused the driver licence register at least once.
Extra protections have been put in place around the MVR and Driver Licence Register, with more frequent auditing, NZTA told RNZ.
About 2200 people and companies have access to the register, including vehicle dealers, insurance companies, finance companies, and private investigators.
