Report finds 10,000 Budgets sent early

Press, 30 August 1986, Page 1

Report finds 10,000 Budgets sent early

PA Wellington Nearly 10,000 copies of the Budget left the Government Printer before it was presented in Parliament, the State Services Commission said yesterday in a report recommending tighter security. The commission’s report said 9976 copies of the Budget in various formats were sent out early. The report said there were no formal security instructions, there was no formally authorised circulation list, and confusion was caused by more than one person giving orders.

Faulty and unclear instructions were given about distribution of complimentary copies.

after the speech was delivered.

It was written by the commission’s chairman, Dr Rod Deane, and recommended that the Minister in future approve a distribution list formally. It advocated a “Budget controller” in the Treasury to be formally recognised as being the only person able to give instructions. The Government Printer should be the only distributor of Budget documents, and security of deliveries to bookshops should be reviewed.

“The commission has doubts whether security could ever be guaranteed under any system which provides for wide circulation of documents for delivery or collection prior to formal presentation of the Budget in the House,” the report said. The report recommended restricting distribution of early copies to those needed in the House, those needed for briefings of the press and analysts under “secure conditions,” and copies for sale in bookshops

The Prime Minister, Mr Lange, said the recommendations would be considered “in due course.”