22 December 2010

The Department of Internal Affairs today announced that it intends to enter into negotiations with the New Zealand Post Group to expand the use of igovt services.

The two organisations will now begin work towards an agreement that maintains the high level of public confidence and trust in the way people’s information is managed by Government.

Manager of Integrity and Identity Programmes, Andrea Gray, says the potential partnership is the result of a competitive process that began in early 2010.

“We asked a number of commercial organisations to identify how a partnership could lead to faster uptake of igovt services, provide support for the issuance of igovt IDs and help us efficiently deliver our services. The desired result is the private and public sectors working together to give the public a convenient, safe and accurate way to prove and manage their identity online.“

There are currently two igovt services available to the public, the igovt logon service and the igovt identity verification service.

The igovt logon service lets people provide the same logon details when accessing a variety of participating government services online. There are over 100,000 igovt logons currently being used.

The identity verification service allows people to verify their identity to participating government service providers via the Internet. To obtain an igovt ID, users must register in person at a designated location.

Participating agencies using igovt services reduce service delivery costs and their clients no longer need to repeatedly submit documents to prove who they are.

More information about the igovt services is available on www.i.govt.nz.

ENDS

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