Senior Immigration New Zealand officials repeatedly ignored requests from the minister's office and progressed work on a project the minister hadn't agreed to extra funding for, according to new documents released to RNZ.
By Jo Moir of RNZ
The hundreds of pages of correspondence paint a picture of the processes the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment (MBIE), which the Immigration department sits within, used to pursue a now abandoned IT upgrade.
Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche has appointed Michael Heron KC to investigate "integrity concerns" after Immigration Minister Erica Stanford revealed last month her officials "deliberately witheld" information from both her and the previous government.
That and accusations of "creative accounting" were laid out in a damning review into the department's handling of the project.
At least $35 million of taxpayers' money was wasted after the biometric capability upgrade (BCU) was ultimately stopped in 2025 after years of red flags, delays, and missed milestones.
In an unusual move Stanford has released documents to RNZ she would normally withhold under the "free and frank" provision, given the "significant public interest considerations and the fact that my recollections of the conversations are consistent with what is noted in the timeframe".
One of those documents, a timeline developed by her specialist ministerial advisor, Kara Isaac, clearly lays out the many emails, conversations, and meetings between the minister's office and her ministry officials, including the chief executive, between February 21 and April 30, 2024.
In that timeline, there were five requests by Stanford's office for previous independent quality assurance reports (IPAs) analysing the project to be sent in full - it was six days before the ministry provided two of them.
Based on notes kept at the time and released to RNZ, it immediately became clear what officials had verbally told Stanford in meetings about the progress of the upgrade, and what the independent analysis showed were very different.
In a project update to the minister on March 19, 2024 it stated: "The latest IQA confirmed the project approach was sound and robust, the build is achievable, and the risk management practice is effective."
Yet, on receiving the IQAs nine days later the minister's office found it stated: "Given the projects poor delivery history, and its inability to meet agreed milestones, we have doubts as to whether the project will in fact deliver at all, and we question its continuation."
On realising this Isaac contacted the acting chief executive at the time, Nic Blakely, formally raising the misleading advice to the minister.
In a closed door meeting later that same day with Blakely, Stanford raised the "concerning significant discrepancies" and was told the issue would be raised with chief executive, Carolyn Tremain, as soon as she returned from leave.
Report into IT upgrade 'damning'
An aide memoire of everything known about the discrepancies, produced on March 28, 2024 by Isaac and released to RNZ, detailed "free and frank opinion" to the minister.
In it, Isaac notes Stanford was alerted via a written briefing on March 19, 2024 that the project was tracking well, yet in a meeting with officials less than a week later, on 25 March, officials advised Stanford the previous IQA report was "damning".
Isaac's aide memoire makes clear that only came to light after probing from Stanford's office and "at my continued insistence that we received the IQA reports to review for ourselves".
She went on to say the most recent IQA report gave the project a delivery rating of 'unlikely' to deliver.
"So we are now in a situation where it appears a number of people have deliberately mislead [sic] you about the status of a $32m (and counting) project," she wrote.
Isaac suggested the issues be raised immediately with Tremain when she returned from leave, and that a new urgent IQA be commissioned to get an updated status, as well as an investigation into the "deliberate provision to you of misleading advice on a significant IT project".
At the same time Isaac had been raising questions about an "unexpected attempt" from the ministry to include in a cabinet paper an increase in the project's total costs from $35m to $40m.
She recommended the investigation include who "instigated the attempt in mid-March to add into the Fees and Levies Cabinet paper agreement" a funding increase to $40m "without proper scrutiny".
An email released to RNZ from March 5, 2024 shows MBIE deputy secretary and chief security officer Greg Patchell describing the project as "well in flight" and "likely to need to exceed the current spending limit of an all-of-life total of $35m".
The email, to a number of other senior MBIE staff, notes a meeting Patchell and Tremain had with Stanford a week earlier and the minister's "preference to address the approval to an all of life cost over $35m" in the fees and levies cabinet paper.
That "preference" is not a recollection held by Stanford, and there is no record of her discussing or agreeing to an increase in costs at that point, according to the documents released to RNZ.
More than a week later MBIE officials, including Patchell, met with Stanford and were asked about the project whole-of-life costs - Patchell advised "it would be weeks before further analysis would be completed".
Isaac notes in her timeline at this point there was still no record or mention of using the cabinet paper to get sign-off for increased funding.
It wasn't until March 19 that Stanford's office has any record of officials requesting that, despite the earlier March 5 email already detailing what Patchell said was the minister's preference on the matter.
Isaac advised it was a "firm no" to including the request as the cabinet paper was two days from lodgement and "it had never been raised with the office" before now.
RNZ asked Stanford a series of questions about the time taken for information to be passed onto her office, and whether she had received an acceptable explanation as to why Patchell had instructed his colleagues she was keen to increase the project's costs through the fees and levies cabinet paper.
She told RNZ "matters relating to the provision of information and the accuracy and adequacy of the advice I received will be investigated as part of the Michael Heron KC inquiry that is now underway".
She said she was unable to comment further to "preserve the integrity of the inquiry, including procedural fairness".
Likewise, the ministry associate deputy secretary Stephen Vaughan told RNZ it would be inappropriate to comment on specific matters while the inquiry is underway.
Patchell, who left the ministry and started a new job in the private sector at the start of last year, told RNZ he wouldn't be making any comment as there is an active inquiry underway.
The morning's headlines in 90 seconds, including ongoing support amid high inflation, and Robbie Williams comes clean about a viral moment. (Source: 1News)
SHARE ME