Four years down the drain: Wellington Water’s missed opportunity laid bare

Thursday, 24 April 2025

Join the conversation in the comments below

A neglected internal Wellington Water report from 2021 reveals lead contractor Fulton Hogan’s monthly expense statements were not being reviewed, crew member hours went unchecked and third party claims went untracked.

The entity charged with managing the region’s water resources did not have a clear view as to whether money was being spent efficiently or whether work was being done to a quality level, the report said. As a result, it was not able to report accurately to the board and city councils.

Wellington Water chairperson Nick Leggett described the report, which has just only surfaced now after four years, as “more bad news”.

It was made public on Tuesday, having been included in a Wellington Water committee meeting paper last week after its existence was made known to chief executive Pat Dougherty.

There were some “depressingly similar themes” to today, Dougherty said, and it “would have been great” if some of the issues were addressed at the time.

The ratepayer-funded organisation last week released figures showing Fulton Hogan, its alliance partner since July 2019, invoiced for $127 million in the last financial year – a figure eclipsing the next highest contractors.

The report was neglected at the time by former chief executive Colin Crampton, who accepted it and put it to the board which then made an action plan, but any action was not followed through.

Crampton declined to comment on Wednesday.

Wellington Water Committee deputy chairperson Ros Connelly said the report had a “deja vu feeling” as it laid out similar struggles now faced by the organisation.

“This was an opportunity to get some things right and we missed that.”

But Connelly said while knowing about the report at the time would have given weight to Wellington Water’s requests for money, it may not have made councils forthcoming.

Leggett said the mere release of the paper was a sign of the organisation changing its culture by being upfront, but the elephant in the room was the lack of basic financial and asset management IT systems.

Former Wellington City councillor and Wellington Water committee board member Sean Rush, who was among the first to raise concerns in 2022, confirmed there was no communication about the report at the time.

“I long suspected some of the findings of this report were happening at Wellington Water and I’m very disappointed that these recommendations weren’t placed transparently in front of the committee.”

Rush said the missing report reinforced his stance on the Local Water Done Well reform, which was to keep the service in-house until the house was in order.

The report advises Wellington Water to strengthen controls with Fulton Hogan as there was no clear monitoring being performed by the water entity.

Fulton Hogan’s monthly expenses were not being reviewed, which resulted in costs not within the alliance agreement being paid by Wellington Water and, subsequently, councils.

Fulton Hogan declined to comment.

The organisation had no consistent approach to validating capital and operating expenditure and inaccurate tracking of third party claims could lead to “incomplete reporting to the councils” and “costs not being reimbursed where there is third party liability”, the report warned.

The report pointed to a lack of information available to track, monitor and manage work being undertaken.

The monitoring of Fulton Hogan’s budget was described as “ineffective”. Without appropriate monitoring controls, Wellington Water could not know if the work undertaken was completed efficiently, to the right level of quality or within its budget expectation.

Controls had not been established, meaning crew members from both Fulton Hogan and Wellington Water were not having their hours checked.

“Without review of charged hours against work orders there is no management of the cost to complete work or identification of overrun costs,” the report said.

A Wellington Water spokesperson said the report landed at a time where the culture at Wellington Water allowed for risks and issues to be left unaddressed.

“This is the very culture we have been working hard to change.”

Comments are moderated during working hours and may not appear immediately.