A senior civil servant who was suspended last summer because of his role in continuing defence ministry IT problems was given a new job trying to sort out computer security at the national health authority NZa, the NRC says on Wednesday.

That project has since been completed and the NZa had no objections to the involvement of the man, despite being aware of his background, a spokesman told the paper.

Last year it emerged that confidential information from hospitals and health insurance companies was not properly secured in the NZa system. The problems were revealed by whistleblower Arthur Gotlieb, who later killed himself after the NZa ignored his findings.

In July, defence minister Jeanine Hennis suspended four IT managers because of the problems which ‘posed risks for the continuity of operations’. There were also rumours that Hennis was looking into claims of fraud, the NRC says.