Mr Laurie Ferguson asked the Minister for Administrative Services, upon notice, on 18 March 1997:

Further to his answer to question No. 1052 (Hansard , 4 February 1997, page 92), has progress been made into investigating allegations (a) that Mr L Swindell's Specialised Transport Services PL utilised Comcar computer information concerning bookings, billing and client print-outs, (b) relating to Mr Swindell's claim that he had a commercial relationship with Comcar management personnel, (c) relating to the circumstances of Mr Swindell's successful tender over Comcar for contracts associated with President Clinton's visit and (d) as to the extent of the dissemination of computer password information among Comcar personnel, if so, what.

Mr Jull —The answer to the honourable member's question is as follows:

In responding on 4 February 1997 to the honourable members question No. 1052, I advised that I would provide detailed answers to that question when investigations into related allegations had been completed. Those investigations have now been completed. I provide the following details in the order of the parts of question 1052.

(1) Yes.

(a) Mr Swindells was employed in COMCAR management as the NSW State Supervisor and prior to that the NSW State Operations Manager.

(b) He was employed in the position of State Supervisor from 23 January 1995 to 30 June 1995 and State Operations Manager from 9 June 1992 to 22 January 1995. He was employed in COMCAR in various capacities for nearly 25 years.

(2) (a) Yes.

(b) COMCAR does not compete in the hire car market. It provides a car with driver service to entitlees on a cost recovery basis. COMCAR customers are not tied to COMCAR and may choose self-drive, chauffeured hire cars or taxis depending on their transport requirements.

(3) No. COMCAR has on occasions subcontracted the hire of coaches to Larry Swindells Specialised Transport. Total payments from 31 December 1995 to end December 1996 was $47,750.75.

(4) In Sydney, Larry Swindells Specialised Transport Services was contracted directly by the United States Consulate for its transport requirements and by COMCAR for the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet's coach requirements.

(5) On 17 October 1996 and 15 November 1996.

(6) The United States Government provided its own vehicles for the use of the President, Mrs Clinton and other members of the party (as was the case with President Bush's visit). In accordance with the normal guidelines for a visiting Head of State the Australian Government offered to provide four COMCAR vehicles to the visiting party. This offer was accepted.

(7) The use of hire cars was a commercial transaction between the United States Government and Australian hire car companies. The related details are matters known to those parties and not my Department. The cost of the provision of COMCAR vehicles was $13,661.00.

(8) The Department's Fraud Control Unit found that Mr Swindells' company has had a commercial relationship with both DAS Removals and COMCAR which, respectively, employ Messrs Fink and Hanley. Mr Fink was previously employed by COMCAR. However, the Fraud Control Unit found no evidence to confirm that Mr Swindells' relationship with either Messrs Fink or Hanley was improper.

(9) (a) (b) The Department's Fraud Control Unit found that Mr Larry Swindells used the COMCAR computer system and laminating facilities in the COMCAR office in Sydney in the course of providing services to COMCAR. It found no evidence/information that this was unauthorised or otherwise inappropriate.

(10) The following number of people in COMCAR have access to reservation, allocation and client billing data:

(a) 51 to booking information; 9 to billing information; and 9 to client print-outs.

(b) and (c) The positions these people hold are:

.   for `booking' information—Allocations Officers, Reservations Officers, State Operations Supervisors, State Operations Officers, Visits Officers, Finance Officers, Systems Officers, Customer Liaison Officer, Client Maintenance Officer, Assistant Manager National Operations and the Assistant General Manager;

.   for `billing' information—Finance Officers, System Officers and Assistant General Manager; and

.   for `client' information—Client Maintenance Officer, Customer Liaison Officer, Visits Officer, Reservations Officers and Systems Officers.