Access to credit card details being examined

Complaints over public office credit card expenses may result in guidelines for the kind of information which is able to be released.

Chief Ombudsman Beverley Wakem, who was responding to an Official Information Act request by the Otago Daily Times, confirmed the office was investigating complaints concerning access to credit card expense information.

"We are currently in the process of establishing general principles which are likely to apply across the spectrum of complaints," she said.

Those general principles were likely to include advice from the Privacy Commissioner on cases where personal transactions were put on a public office credit cards.

The Privacy Commissioner declined to comment on the matter.