27th September 2012

The Director of the Government Communications Security Bureau, Ian Fletcher, today released the following statement:

“I am very sorry for the way the Bureau has handled its part in the Dotcom case. I have apologized on behalf of the Bureau to the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister, and the Prime Minister’s own statement has made clear his views."

“We got this wrong. Both factual errors and unacceptable errors of legal interpretation were compounded, most especially by our treating those interpretations as fact for too long. It should not have happened."

“The Prime Minister’s statement makes clear what we are going to do immediately:

• Establish new approval processes in the support of Police and other law enforcement agencies. This type of operation is halted meanwhile.

• Agree with Police and other law enforcement agencies how to confirm immigration status before operations in support of law enforcement activity are undertaken within New Zealand.

• Submit these proposed changes to the Inspector-General in advance of their implementation.

“Of course, we will be doing more: over the next few weeks we will be fundamentally overhauling our compliance framework. That will involve changes, tightening our processes significantly. We will consult closely with the Inspector General on the changes we propose to make, and we will of course follow his recommendations.

Separately, an internal audit process will continue to look at what we need to do differently."

“I know that it will take time to regain the trust and confidence that we have lost. But I also know that we will be able to do so, and be able to re-establish the high standard of accountability expected of us."

ENDS

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