Scathing Wellington Water report ‘riddled with errors’

Thursday, 1 February 2024

Jean Jacques Hair Design staff on Lambton Quay waited more than 30 days for a leak outside their salon to be repaired.

A scathing and previously-secret report into Wellington Water has been released but the water agency has privately argued it is “riddled with errors”.

After at least a month of full details only being known to a select few, the Wellington City Council released the FieldForce4 report late on Thursday morning as much of the region is amid a water crisis, largely caused by leaks and decades of under investment in pipes.

Earlier leaked details into the FieldForce4 report highlighted soaring costs, duplication of jobs, and delays in the water utility.

But the full report also shows a lack of accountability from Wellington Water to the city council, which appeared to have given it an “open cheque book without the ability to manage the quality and efficiency of services delivered, while all the risk and performance accountability sits with [the council]”.

It found an overall decrease in reactive works to problems, an inconsistent approach across the region, “a number of disparate systems”, and a lack of appropriate performance monitoring.

It also found the contract between Wellington Water and Fulton Hogan had increased. The figure was redacted in the report but one part of it, a fee to manage the relationship, had jumped 181% to $2.8m.

But internal Wellington Water emails, released on Thursday under the Local Government and Official Information and Meetings Act, show the organisation’s frank take on the report.

“[The report] has been very closely held, even within Wellington Water, mainly because it is so riddled with errors and shows a complete misread of the Wellington Water and Wellington City context that it would be damaging to morale to be released any wider,” an October email from Wellington Water chief executive Tonia Haskell said.

On Thursday afternoon Local Government Minister Simeon Brown said he had not yet received the FieldForce4 report from the council but expected it very soon. Improving Wellington Water’s accountability and value for money was “exactly what will happen” if the Government’s water policy went ahead.

“We'll have a water regulator but also economic regulation to get that balance right to ensure that water services are delivered as efficiently as possible for those using those services,” Brown said.

FieldForce4 chief executive Murray Niederer said he could not comment other than to say most of the data his company used came from Wellington Water.

In a press release on Thursday, Haskell said some recommendations in the report would affect the service it could provide other regional councils. The Wellington City Council is its biggest funder but it is also owned and funded by councils in Porirua, Upper and Lower Hutt, South Wairarapa, and the Greater Wellington Regional Council.

“Some of the findings and observations in the report are valid and, where possible, we have already made improvements to the way we work,” Haskell said in her statement

Her statement did not specify what findings those were but a just-released late-October email from Haskell to others, including council chief executive Barbara McKerrow, outlined a number of issues.

These included the report allegedly ignoring that other councils were shareholders so should have a say in the direction of Wellington Water, and the scope of the review being widened significantly.

The report was made public on Thursday only after Local Government Minister Simeon Brown asked the council to supply it to him when he called Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau to his office to outline what the city was doing to address a water crisis.

It is now understood that one city councillor is looking to file a notice of motion to delay a multi-million land deal with international cinema company Reading, to revoke earlier decisions on that deal and instead focus on issues including water. It is understood that $32 million in council money was going to be tied to that deal.

The deal came after the multi-millionaire owners of Reading flew in to Wellington just after Whanau was elected and a deal was hammered out that would see the cash-strapped city buy the Lambton Quay land the long-closed cinema sits on and lease it back to the US-based cinema company.