News | Wednesday, 02 December 2009

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Data protection decision on PBO’s ‘data-sharing’ e-mail leaked to PN

Charlot Zahra
Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) Joseph Ebejer’s decision on the Paul Borg Olivier ‘data-sharing’ case was yesterday made public by the Nationalist Party itself – about whom the complaint was made – and not by the DPC who happens to be away from the island at present.
On 4 December 2008, Labour leader Joseph Muscat announced that he had filed a complaint with the Data Protection Commissioner – a position that was still vacant at the time – about the “web of espionage” allegedly revealed when PN secretary-general Paul Borg Olivier accidentally sent an e-mail to his Labour counterpart Jason Micallef, in which he mentioned plans for a ‘data-sharing’ exercise involving government departments and the Nationalist Party.
The Labour Party in a statement last night revealed that when the party tried to contact Ebejer to get a copy of the DPC decision on its complaint, if was informed that the DPC “was abroad”.
However, for reasons which remain unclear, the Nationalist Party (which was the defendant in this case) learnt of the decision before the injured party.
In fact, it was the PN that in a statement earlier in the day had revealed that Dr Muscat’s complaint against Borg-Olivier on the “data-sharing” had been rejected by the DPC.
The PN in its statement claimed the DPC had concluded that there had been “no processing of personal data” and therefore the data protection law was not broken.
However, the PL charged that the DPC had dismissed its claim for violation of Data Protection against Borg-Olivier “solely because the PL had published the contents of the email”.
Citing the DPC decision, the PL said that this showed that the request that PBO had made for the passage of personal data on individuals centrally at the OPM about complaints that had been made at Ministries and Parliamentary Secretariats “certainly was not conformity of the Act (about the Protection and the Privacy of Data)”
To this effect, “the PN Secretary-General is being warned that if this request had to be implemented, it would have had serious consequences on the right to privacy of those individuals whose personal information would have come out,” the PL said, citing again from the DPC decision.
Sources familiar with the working of the DPC told MaltaToday that the complainant is usually informed together with the defendant in all DPC cases.
“In this case, it is clear that the DPC has violated its own practice for the sake of political convenience,” these sources added.
The system, called euphemistically by Paul Borg-Olivier “data sharing”, was described in an e-mail sent at 2:56pm on 10 November 2008 to the Prime Minister and all the cabinet ministers and parliamentary secretaries and copied to PN Deputy Secretary General Jean-Pierre Debono, OPM Communications Director Gordon Pisani, OPM Head of Secretariat Edgar Galea-Curmi, OPM customer care chief Charmaine Gerada, and PN Information Director Frank Psaila.
The e-mail came out after it was also inadvertently sent to Labour Secretary General Jason Micallef instead of Parliamentary Secretary Jason Azzopardi on 4 December 2008.
The existence of this email was first revealed by MaltaToday on 16 November 2008, and published by Labour leader Joseph Muscat and then Labour Secretary-General Jason Micallef on 4 December 2008.

The original blunder
The original email, which has been translated from the Maltese, reads as follows:
Subject: RESENT – Meeting with Customer Care Officials – Data Sharing
“Colleagues,
“Today, at Dar Ċentrali (PN headquarters), we had the first meeting between the Party and the Customer Care officials from ministries and parliamentary secretariats in the presence of Charmaine Gerada and Alfred Mangion from the office of the prime minister.
“The meeting, which was attended by the Head Customer Care in each secretariat, was a positive one and a good beginning was made.
“On behalf of the party attended the Secretary-General, the Assistant Secretary-General, and Margaret Mercieca [the customer care official at the Nationalist Party].
“Also present were Ivan Falzon [MIMCOL Chairman], Charles Demicoli [Kordin Grain Terminal Chairman] and Karol Aquilina [PN Siggiewi Deputy mayor and member of the PN’s National Executive], who were involved in the process before the general elections.
“The meeting had the aim of looking at the Customer Care work and how this can be integrated better, particularly so as together we can create a strong web of communication of collective synergy so that together we can be more effective our work with all those who approach the Party and the Ministers/Parliamentary Secretariats.
“Our aim to go for the integration of the respective work in the Customer Care department is to make the process before the general elections a process spread during the whole legislature. This can only take place if everybody takes ownership of this strategy.
“This ownership of this project and the collective commitment are also aimed at alleviating a lot from the burden that is saddled (mostly uselessly) on the Prime Minister.
“At present we are going through the process of integrating the customer care work, which could offer:
1. better management of complaints/requests;
2. an improvement in the bureaucracy that saddles a lot of the process which could also collectively identify “pockets of weekness” [sic];
3. a wide view of the origin of the complaints/requests as well as an indication of trends (and therefore also offers means of how we should respond);
4. a strong audit trail in the process
5. a maximisation of resources.
“Therefore, as part of the first process to integrate the data at the same level accessible at the Office of the Prime Minister, every official in the Customer Care is being requested to forward all the data on a template which will be provided by Charmaine Gerada.
“This data (exel) [sic] should include (1) personal data on the requests that were made to the Customer Care of the Ministry/Parliamentary Secretariat in the past eight months, (2) kind of request, (3) action taken and (4) result (pending).
“I kindly ask you to stimulate your respective Customer Care Department so that this process starts without any hindrance, in the collective interest, and so that this burden does not fall mostly on the Prime Minister.
Thanks for your cooperation.
Regards
Paul Borg Olivier
PN Secretary General”

czahra@mediatoday.com.mt

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