ID SCANDAL PROMPTS INVESTIGATION

Gov't Wants To Know How Suspected Drug Dealers Got Personal
Information

EDMONTON - The province will investigate how suspected drug dealers
got civil servants' personal identification and credit histories.

Police found credit check forms of 43 top public servants Tuesday
during a search on a fraud warrant in a hotel room rented by suspected
drug dealers. Charges are expected.

The forms were from checks done on 464 people at the direction of the
personnel administration office, which is the human resources arm for
the civil service. TransUnion, a multinational company that
specializes in checking personal financial records, handled the work
on contract.

Premier Ralph Klein expressed concern Friday that senior managers'
phone numbers, birth dates and social insurance numbers got into the
wrong hands, and could be used to construct identities.

"The police will investigate the criminal side of this. And I will
make sure that government officials, our senior deputy minister Julian
Nowicki spearheads an investigation into the administration of the
security procedures," Klein said.

Gordon Turtle, spokesman for Klein's office, said all of the civil
servants who were affected by the breach are being contacted, and
"whatever help can be offered will be offered."

One irate senior official, among the 43 affected, said they have had
to change bank account and credit card numbers.

The information belonged to officials from the level of director up to
deputy minister.

"There is absolutely no excuse for this," Liberal Leader Kevin Taft
said. He called the process an overreaction to terrorism and a few
fraud cases, and questioned whether the credit checks were necessary.

"If they are, why do we privatize that function and how do we let it
get to the point where a company failed to follow procedures?" Taft
said.

The government decided on the checks partly because of the Sept. 11,
2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

There were other reasons, including the case of Ray Reshke, a former
assistant deputy minister of Alberta Infrastructure, who in June was
sentenced to nine months in jail after pleading guilty to bilking the
government out of $124,700.

Reshke claimed an addiction to video lottery terminals.

While the government has suspended its dealings with TransUnion, the
firm, whose parent company is based in Chicago, Ill., has sent some of
its top people to Edmonton to investigate the problem.

The company was saying little Friday, but put out a statement that
"the safety and security of consumer information that TransUnion
maintains is and always will be paramount. TransUnion Canada's top
leadership is now on site in the Edmonton office.

It added: "They are there to ensure service levels to consumers and
businesses are maintained and that all consumer information is secure."

Many public employees were outraged when the credit checks
began.

The personnel administration office consulted with the office of the
privacy commissioner last year before deciding to do the checks.

A "privacy impact assessment" of the procedure was done, to assess
whether the checks could expose the public servants to undue risks to
their privacy.

Tim Chander, spokesman for the privacy commissioner's office, said the
office does not approve such actions or make recommendations, but
"accepts" the findings of an assessment so it won't be in a catch-22
position if called on to investigate a violation of privacy
legislation.

"Frank Work (the commissioner) was notified of the breach on Wednesday
evening," said Chander. "Of course he is upset this information was
disclosed."

Privacy staff will meet on Monday to ensure they followed due
diligence in the privacy assessment, Chander said.

At the time of the assessment, Work wrote that a higher level of trust
is expected of senior government employees, which justifies scrutiny
and collecting of personal information.

"However, the extent to which the employer becomes involved in the
personal life of an employee has to bear some reasonable relationship
to responsibility and risk. ... You do not gather this kind of
information about employees without good reason."

City police Det. Allan Vonkeman said the criminal investigation is in
its early stages and police want to notify all of the affected people
first.

The information was all printed material and there is no indication
that anybody hacked into a government or TransUnion computer to get
it, he said.

The hotel room raid was made on a fraud warrant, he said. The
suspected drug dealers could have more personal information, although
he does not believe that more than 43 public servants were affected.