[LINK] Costly veil of secrecy descends over PS

[Bernard Robertson-Dunn]

Costly veil of secrecy descends over PS
By Marcus Mannheim Public Service Reporter
28 May, 2011 12:00 AM
Canberra Times
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/costly-veil-of-secrecy-descends-over-ps/2177764.aspx?storypage=0

A costly veil of secrecy has descended on the federal bureaucracy, as 
more government information falls behind a classified wall.

New data obtained by The Canberra Times suggests more than one in two 
public servants now hold security clearances; a job requirement that was 
once relatively uncommon.

Clearances are needed to access classified documents that, if made 
public, could harm Australia’s interests or undermine public safety.

The trend in favour of classifi cation appears to be at odds with the 
Government’s official information policy to improve access to its data 
and documents, particularly via the internet.

The shift has also forced ASIO to devote more resources than ever to 
vetting bureaucrats and government contractors.

The spy agency carried out 22,340 character assessments last financial 
year, double the number in 2000-01.

The apparent increase in classified material may also expose public 
servants to tougher potential penalties, as leaking these documents is 
more likely to be seen as a criminal offence.

The Gillard Government became so concerned by the mounting costs of its 
security checks that it set up the Australian Government Security 
Vetting Agency in October last year to centralise the assessments.

Attorney-General Robert McClelland said the change would save more than 
$5million a year, as more than 100 government workplaces had previously 
duplicated their vetting work, outsourcing much of it to private firms. 
But the total cost to taxpayers of vetting remains unknown.

The security agency's budget for its first nine months is $16million.

However, analysis of public tenders shows government agencies spent 
$51.7million over the past four years hiring outsiders to carry out 
security and police checks on staff.

A Defence spokeswoman said this week that, as of Wednesday, the vetting 
agency had records of about 286,200 workers with up-to-date clearances.

About 127,800 were military personnel and reservists, 103,400 were 
federal bureaucrats and 55,000 were contractors.

But the spokeswoman said the data was incomplete, as several workplaces, 
particularly intelligence agencies, continued to do their own vetting.

Of the 353 job advertisements in this week's APS Employment Gazette, 
two-thirds said successful candidates would need security clearances.

A former senior bureaucrat, who asked to remain unnamed, told The 
Canberra Times this week that staff in some agencies were highly prone 
to overclassifying their work.

''It's a pissing contest: if you can get a higher classification on your 
work than your colleagues can, it's a way of showing your project's more 
important than theirs.''

The Auditor-General's office has previously warned that such practices 
undermine the work of government.

It said in a 2000 report that all agencies it examined had ''incorrectly 
classified files, with over-classification being the most common 
occurrence''.

''Over-classification has the effect of increasing the costs of 
protection and restricting the flow of information within the 
organisation,'' it said.

Whistleblowers Australia president Peter Bennett said yesterday the 
number of security clearances in place was of less concern than the 
bureaucracy's ''paranoid and frankly stupid'' fear of the public. ''The 
problem is they tend to overclassify information and then don't put a 
time limit on it.

''In some cases, a document that's top secret today shouldn't even be 
classified at all in five days' time, but no one reviews or declassifies 
it. That's where the real cost is: maintaining this ongoing secrecy 
instead of just letting the public know how they're being governed.''

A freedom of information and privacy specialist, Sydney lawyer Peter 
Timmins, said it was impossible to compare how much information was 
classified from one year to the next.

But he said recent court cases suggested bureaucrats often misunderstood 
what type of documents they should make public.

He urged Auditor-General Ian McPhee to open a new investigation into the 
way public servants classify information.

Mr McClelland was asked this week to explain the rise in security 
checks, but his office was unable to respond in time.

-- 

Regards
brd

Bernard Robertson-Dunn
Canberra Australia
email:	brd at iimetro.com.au
website:	www.drbrd.com



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