MBIE chief defends Immigration NZ staff integrity after minister claims officials misled her

The head of the government agency responsible for a failed $32 million immigration IT project has defended public servants’ integrity following serious allegations against Immigration NZ (INZ) officials – but is promising employment action if the claims are found to be true.

It follows allegations that officials at INZ used “creative accounting” to avoid Cabinet scrutiny of a failed eight-year project to update the agency’s identity management system.

On Tuesday, a furious Immigration Minister Erica Stanford accused INZ staff of misleading her over the viability of the “doomed” project, which an independent review found had delivered nothing since it began in 2018.

Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) chief executive Nic Blakeley told Nadine Higgins on Ryan Bridge TODAY that the “overwhelming” ethos of the public service was one of integrity, but said the review’s findings were “extremely disappointing”.

He had requested a full stocktake of all tech projects at MBIE – which includes Immigration NZ – and would report back to ministers after it concluded in a month.

Blakeley – who started in the role in January – said MBIE would fully co-operate with the Public Service Commission’s separate investigation and if the integrity issues raised were substantiated, employment action would be taken.

The review had also found that while there were checks and balances in place, they were often bypassed when red flags were raised, and staff who raised concerns weren’t listened to.

Blakeley said that came down to leadership. He would be strengthening the governance processes in place and setting expectations with his team about MBIE’s culture.

“I want MBIE to be a place where people can raise concerns and be heard.”

Blakeley told Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking Breakfast that it was inevitable that any big tech project would have issues, but oversight needed to be much stronger.

The review had shown there was a tendency toward “optimism bias”, but did not allege officials had acted deliberately. However, the Public Service Commission’s review would look into whether there was any deliberate deception involved, he said.

Stanford presented the report to a parliamentary select committee on Tuesday, saying it showed the project was “doomed from the start” thanks to a very poor business case, and had been plagued by defects.

However, she had been repeatedly reassured that the project could be delivered, suggesting officials had not been up front with her.

It is alleged officials tried to “slip” funding increases into an unrelated Cabinet paper; when questioned, they then divided the funding to ensure it wouldn’t reach the $35m threshold to be considered by Cabinet.

Stanford told the Herald the officials’ behaviour was “as bad as it gets” and she no longer trusted the advice she received.