Privacy Commissioner - Te Mana Matapono Matatapu

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Customs/ MED Motor Vehicle Traders Importers Programme

• Annual report
• Technical information
• System description
• Historical activity

Annual report

Purpose: To enable the Ministry of Economic Development (MED) identify people who have imported more than three motor vehicles in a 12 month period and are not registered as motor vehicle traders, and take action if there is a strong case for prosecution.

Year commenced: 2004

Features: Data transferred quarterly by online transfer.

Customs disclosure to MED: Customs provides MED with the full name, address, contact numbers and a Customs unique identifier of all individuals or entities that have imported more than three vehicles within the previous 12 months.

MED disclosure to Customs: MED returns the Customs unique identifier number for those individuals or entities that can be excluded from future matching because they are registered or are not required to be registered.

2008/09 activity:

Match runs	4
Records received for matching	249
Individuals or entities of interest identified	64
Notices of adverse action sent	96[1]
Successful challenges - Entities: registered under another name	1
- Entities: primary purpose not financial gain	19
Entities referred to the National Enforcement Unit	0
Registrations as a result of notices of adverse action	6

Commentary: An internal audit of the online transfer system revealed that while information sent from Customs to MED was properly secured, transfers from MED to Customs were unsecured because a security feature was not properly enabled. MED immediately remedied this oversight and no data breaches occurred.

As anticipated, after five years of operation there has been a considerable reduction in new individuals or entities received by MED for matching. The programme now operates quarterly (formerly monthly).

Compliance: Compliant, but technical issues identified - see commentary.

Technical information

Information matching provision	Motor Vehicle Sales Act 2003, ss.120 and 121
Year authorised	2003
Programme type	Detecting illegal behaviour
Unique identifiers	Customs client code

System description

Customs provide MED with a quarterly SEEMail on-line transfer of a comma separated values (CSV) data file that includes all individuals or entities who have imported more than three motor vehicles within the previous 12 months. The Customs information includes name, address and contact information of the importer, along with details of the vehicles imported.

MED open the CSV file as a spreadsheet and manually match the Customs data against the Motor Vehicle Traders Register to identify the status (registered or unregistered) of each person or entity. Individuals for whom a match cannot be made (i.e. those not registered but who may be required to register) are sent a s.103 notice of adverse action[2]. If no response is received, either written or in the form of a new registration, a second notice is sent advising that the matter may be referred to the Registrar's National Enforcement Unit for prosecution.

Details of individuals or entities that are registered or are not required to be registered are returned to Customs on a monthly basis. Customs excludes these entities from subsequent data runs.

MED also access the spreadsheet containing the Customs data to conduct manual look-ups if a complaint is received. The person who performs the information matching programme is authorised to perform the look up on behalf of all other investigating staff. A privacy register is maintained to record details of each access to Customs data for complaints purposes, and a summary report of this activity is provided to this Office.

Historical activity

	2004/05	2005/06	2006/07	2007/08
Match runs	2	2	2	10
Entities received for matching	2,142	10,402	4,145	1,593
Entities of interest identified	196	554	612	826
Notices of adverse action sent	201	554	510	686[3]
Registrations as a result of notices of adverse action	25	53	35	28

 Successful challenges

Entities: registered under another   name	29	50	31	27
Entities: primary purpose not       financial gain	35	179	117	79

Other results

Notices not delivered ("return to sender" by NZ Post)	35	59	24	2
No response to notice of adverse    action - no action taken	17	185	57	334
Entities referred to the National Enforcement Unit	40	27	45	13

 

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[1] This includes 32 second notices that were sent during the reporting period.
[2] For administrative convenience, and for the benefit of corporate persons, a notice is sent to the matched entity whether they are an individual or a corporate body such as a company or a trust. 
[3]  This figure includes second notices sent to some of the same persons/entities which did not respond to the first notice. For 2007/08, 553 persons/entities were sent the first notice, with 153 of those also sent a second notice.