Former CommInsure chief medical officer Benjamin Koh claims he was authorised to send clients’ files to his personal email address.

He told a Senate Economics References Committee hearing last week that in his first week of employment parent group Commonwealth Bank authorised him to send the emails.

“Regarding the misinformation that was put out by Commonwealth Bank on the issue of termination, it indicated it terminated my employment for sending emails to myself,” Mr Koh said.

“What the bank failed to mention is that, prior to me doing so, I sought and was granted permission to do so by the manager in my first week of being in the job.

“This was to get around equipment issues and maintain work productivity out of my Homebush office.” 

He says CommInsure CEO Helen Troup acknowledged the approval even when she was investigating him as part of his termination process.

“Sending information to an employee’s email was common practice within CommInsure… because of IT remote access,” Dr Koh said.

“Many medical, legal, investigation and claims contractors have done so for at least the past 10 years, but no one has been fired for sending emails to themselves. Ms Troup also knew that.”

Committee member Sam Dastyari asked if the bank is running a smear campaign against Dr Koh.

“[The] announcement by Commonwealth Bank has done that, hasn’t it?” Dr Koh said.

“It has clearly put its side of the story about why I was dismissed and put a half-truth. I have also heard that the public relations person has gone around backgrounding politicians and journalists about my character.

“I do not know what they have said, but it cannot be anything good.”

Senator Dastyari says the committee has previously seen similar actions from the bank when dealing with whistleblowers.

“Firstly, it sounds like you are certainly of the view – I can understand why, and we have seen this happen before – that you have been targeted not because of an occasional email internal process but because you were prepared to speak out and speak out publicly on the behaviour and culture of your employer.

“Part of what this committee is really looking at is, I think your story is explosive, and your story of what happened there is so significant.

“But it also raises a broader policy question for us here as policymakers, which is: how do you create the right environment so that people are prepared to speak up in the way you were prepared to speak up?”

Senator Dastyari also asked whether CommInsure’s practices and claims problems are systemic.

Dr Koh says it applies to the whole life insurance industry.

“My personal experience is obviously with Commonwealth Bank and with Westpac BT previously, but for the concept of life insurance and medical claims assessment, my discussion with others involved in the industry is that this is a systemic cultural problem that is not an isolated incident.”