Official who lost notebook with spy agency details won't be sacked

stuff.co.nz

A distraught Treasury official who lost a notebook containing secret details about a possible new super-spy agency will keep her job.

The woman dropped the pad in a busy street outside Parliament, where it was found by a journalist.

The blunder has revealed top-level talks on whether the Secret Intelligence Service, the Government Communications Security Bureau and the External Assessments Bureau should be merged to cut costs.

Details about police and the Corrections Department were also in the notebook.

A Treasury spokesman said the woman was distressed after the error, but had been told she would keep her job after meeting chief executive John Whitehead.

"It was a human error. That's the end of it, really. There's not going to be any further action."

He said the woman dropped the notepad near the corner of Bowen St and The Terrace, across from the Beehive, on Monday. She realized soon after that it was missing and contacted her manager immediately.

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