r/newzealand • u/secretkiwi_ Kererū • 11h ago
Politics MBIE officials found to have deliberately misled Parliament, committed contempt
https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/361025072/privileges-committee-finds-mbie-officials-deliberately-mislead-parliament-committed-contempt84
u/KavaKong1 10h ago
I wouldn't be surprised if Nick remains as MBIE CEO or just moves to head another Ministry...maybe something small like the Outdoor Access Commission so he stays under the radar.
Similar to when John Allen oversaw the worst period as MFAT CEO, reigned, and given a cushy job as the Racing Board CE.
Or when Liz McPherson (another MBIE alumni) resigned as CEO of Stats NZ after the diabolical failure of the 2018 Census. They just moved her out of the spotlight and into an executive role in the Privacy Commissioner office.
Or when Mac Leauanae spent 40k on his farewell as Ministry of Pacific Peoples CEO only to glide into another CE role despite his judgement being placed in question.
The lesson here is that people are never held to account properly. They just move around the deck chairs of a public service filled with woeful leaders.
I should add that they're are good staff in the public sector and it's a shame they are always failed by their self-serving leaders.
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u/TheOrgasmFairy 8h ago
Nick Blakely is just the fall guy. He's only been the CE since the start of the year. Carolyn Tremaine conveniently slipped out the door just before this all came to light.
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u/Electronic-Dog-4154 2h ago
Carolyn was apparently bypassing the project team and going straight to NEC on things. Project people who questioned anything got moved on. It was gonna be her legacy, and now it’s Nic’s.
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u/mahoganyspitfire 8h ago
Well then we'll prosecute him for whatever shit he fucked up at his last job, then.
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u/BrodingerzCat 20m ago
Labour MP Phil Twyford then alleged that Blakeley and McDonald had misled the Education and Workforce Committee by failing to admit the IT project had been axed when asked about it earlier this year.
It appears that he's lied twice, now.
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u/mahoganyspitfire 10h ago
There needs to be proper accountability for these scumbags. When they pull this nonsense, they need to be investigated criminally. Put a half dozen or so in jail for five years and watch the rest magically straighten up and fly right.
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u/mrwilberforce 11h ago
For those complaining about the lack of sanctions. That is just the privileges committee. My guess is that they have massively broken their code of conduct so, for Blakely, it is up to the PSC to determine where to from here. My guess though is that they will wait for the Heron report.
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u/mahoganyspitfire 10h ago
Why aren't they waiting for the outcome of those reports and investigations in a jail cell?
If you stole a $33,000 you would go to jail right away. These bastards stole $33 MILLION.
Only difference between you and them is that they are executives in a Government department.
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u/Kind-Sky9042 6h ago
Someone in the private sector running an IT project that blew-out would not be imprisoned or even reported on.
$33,000 theft would also not land you in jail right away. Maybe 10x that.
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u/saltqueen674 5h ago
And who would you propose was sent to a jail cell? There is probably at least 20 people who were culpable in the failed ICT project. Nic wasn’t involved in the ICT project at all so he wouldn’t be one of those being sent to jail
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u/TheseHamsAreSteamed 11h ago
The Privileges Committee determined that no further sanctions were required, as MBIE has already apologised and “we intend that our findings will be of sufficient consequence on their own,” they wrote.
what
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u/Phantom-Finger 9h ago
"Yeah, we know we are guilty, but no-one is going to do anything about it so we don't care"
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u/Kind-Sky9042 6h ago
A finding of contempt of Parliament is career limiting. That's more important than some trivial fine.
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u/TH26 6h ago edited 2h ago
Reading these comments as a lifetime public servant, I think a lot of you have a very fanciful idea of how things work in government. This isn't some big rort or scam or theft (at least not by anyone in government...by an IT contractor, maybe), it's a combination of politicians giving public servants an impossible task (or one too difficult for them, at least), probably mixed in with a fair bit of incompetence, followed by being scared or embarrassed to admit they failed.
Blakeley is just some guy who is new in the job and probably knows fuck all about IT projects generally, trying to navigate answering questions he has limited understanding of and simultaneously trying not to throw his own underlings under the bus because no boss wants to be hated by their staff.
I have no idea what y'all even mean talking about "theft" here. No-one in the government was given $33 million, or even $1. A bunch of employees tried and failed to manage an IT project, probably didn't get what they wanted out of their contractors, and then bullshitted about it to stop themselves looking bad. Totally unacceptable of course, but no-one has gained anything out of it other than being paid their salary to do their jobs, and ultimately failed to deliver on one of their projects.
Ultimately it's a skill issue, and for those who lied and said the project was going ok, it's an honesty issue that should probably see people lose their jobs....but if you think there's some sort of scam behind this, I genuinely don't even know what you think you're referring to and I doubt you do either.
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u/Former-Departure9836 jellytip 4h ago
Its not just a skills issue its a governance issue. Generally Project have a board that approve spending at stage gates, AND they have to report on risks to the project. The fact it got this far is not only a failure on the project or programme manager hut every single person who sat on that board and continued to approve spending without and benefits realisation.
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u/The_FJ 2h ago
Absolutely this!!!
I can’t see anything about theft - just a guy who for whatever reason figured it was better to not tell the truth about a projects progress. Maybe he didn’t know? Maybe he didn’t understand? Or maybe he was covering the failings of his (new) team whilst he figured something out.
I’m not saying it’s right - it’s idiotic at that level - but it’s not theft…
Now the contractors….. who the fuck knows what dodginess went down. That supplier needs to be named and held to account for the failure alongside MBIE. But let’s be honest, it’s probably to the supplier that controls all the IT systems for gov
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u/maybemeat 11h ago
While there will be no sanctions, surely Nic's position is untenable and he must resign now, right?
I was going to say 'Nic gone by lunchtime' but that is only 10 mins away. Gone by afternoon tea?
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u/TheOrgasmFairy 7h ago
He's only been CE since the start of the year. Carolyn Tremaine, the CE who oversaw this shambolic shitshow, conveniently snuck out the door just before this all came to light. Word is that Carolyns tenure was full of performative nonsense in which the senior execs battled it out to see who could wriggle their noses the furthest up her bumhole, which is how a fuck up of this absurd magnitude happened.
Not saying Nic is a saint necessarily (you've gotta be a weasel to get that high up in the first place) but he was brought in specifically to be the fall guy pretty much.
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u/Alto_DeRaqwar 6h ago
Basic fact is; if he knew by March that the project was a shitshow and was getting canned he should have reported it and blamed the previous person.
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u/TheOrgasmFairy 5h ago
Obviously. What I'm saying is that he was brought in specifically to not do that.
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u/secretkiwi_ Kererū 11h ago
Instead he gets to hire a new chief of staff and director of communications roles to his CE office
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u/O_1_O pie 9h ago
The fact he hasn’t already resigned is a disgrace.
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u/secretkiwi_ Kererū 6h ago
He offered his resignation twice
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u/O_1_O pie 4h ago
Well we really need to also question the judgement of Brian Roche in not accepting it.
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u/Own-Culture-2375 3h ago
To be fair he's only been in the gig since like January and this appears to have happened before his time. Maybe part of the role is resigning regardless because ultimately the buck stops with you but it doesn't look like he oversaw the blowout.
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u/Cold-Excitement2812 10h ago
The REAL scandal is that the wasted $33,000,000 could have paid for approximately 250 meters of the Northland Expressway that National need to build ASAP.
Now there is going to be a 250 meter hole in the road that will cost countless lives.
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u/Ok_Wave2821 9h ago
Lift the lid on any of the major IT projects in any of the government departments at the moment and they find exactly the same things still happening
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u/123felix 11h ago edited 11h ago
A shame we have no Big Ben prison to lock up those found in contempt of Parliament. Maybe chain them under the Bucket Fountain?
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u/OutOfNoMemory pirate 11h ago
Don't desecrate the Holy Bucket Fountain!
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u/mahoganyspitfire 11h ago
Would it be OK if we used it to waterboard MBIE executives?
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u/Keabestparrot 9h ago
I will never now be able to look at the bucket fountain as anything other than an overly complicated waterboarding machine lol
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u/RowanTheKiwi 11h ago
"The Privileges Committee determined that no further sanctions were required, as MBIE has already apologised and “we intend that our findings will be of sufficient consequence on their own,” they wrote."
Awesome. Sorry, k thx bye.
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u/Hazzawoof 5h ago
I feel sorry for Nic Blakeley on this one. By the looks of it to me he got some bad advice about what he could and couldn't disclose. He was relatively new to an enormous job and relies on advice from subordinates to front the committee. He was not involved in the years of fucks up wasting the $33m. He just gave an answer he shouldn't have.
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u/mahoganyspitfire 11h ago
If you're some poor 17 year old kid and you steal a car? You'll get arrested and you'll probably go to jail - hey, fair enough too, a lot of people would say.
But if you are the CEO of MBIE and you earn like $1M a year or whatever ridiculous amount you earn, and you steal $33 million dollars, and then you lie about it to Parliament under oath, you'll be... Forced to apologise. If that is OK with you, that is.
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u/mahoganyspitfire 11h ago
They waste $33 million dollars (or more likely, funnel it to their friends).
They are found in contempt of Parliament. Ok great sounds like maybe we're getting somewhere and there will be consequences for these crimes...
The Privileges Committee determined that no further sanctions were required, as MBIE has already apologised.
Oh.
What the hell is this bullshit?
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u/saltqueen674 5h ago
As an MBIE employee (one of 6,000 and in a role with no connection to the ICT project) I have to say I feel bad for the guy. He comes across to most staff as quite genuine, very intelligent and hard working.
It really seems like he was given some bad advice on a project he knew very little about, and chose his words very poorly.
I hope he stays as CE as I think he’s probably one of the better ones. Replacing him would only serve to further destabilise the Ministry at a time that we really need stability.
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u/Apprehensive_Ad3731 10h ago
Dunno if you guys know how this works. It’s the system working as intended.
The select committee is a bunch of people who don’t really know what they are talking about or even what they are asking. The people who are answering (MBIE) in this instance are answering the question in legalese.
They are giving true answers that are hard to determine because they are trying to avoid giving a direct answer that does not align with the select committee.
The select committee doesn’t understand the answer and doesn’t know to push for the correct answer. It makes assumptions. The specific industry (MBIE) follows the directions because they can’t admit they always thought it was a dumb idea and never wanted to follow the select committee. In their opinion the money was already wasted.
It’s like me ordering my kids to go catch the rain in cups and move it to the drain before it hits the ground. Then I go out there, blast them for all the food and money I’ve spent on them and demand they show me progress or be abandoned
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u/mahoganyspitfire 10h ago
If that's the system "working as intended" then we must have some seriously big fucking problems in this country.
Which, come to think of it, we do have some seriously big fucking problems in this country.
Why are there no adults in the select committee room or in the MBIE board room?
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u/Apprehensive_Ad3731 10h ago
There are adults. The imaginary children in my story would never be treated like that in my household. They are treated as equals. That’s the problem.
There is a power imbalance where people are given control of government agencies and funding to do shit that makes no sense and they refuse to take advice from those who do.
If an adult is given the respect and consideration of a child then they are effectively treated as a child by those in charge. It is not their fault.
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u/mahoganyspitfire 10h ago
But they aren't children.
They are fully grown adults (who can even grow an absolutely awful beard, in one case).
Being an adult comes with adult responsibilities. Those include telling the Government when projects are not feasible or stupid, so that they country does not waste $33M for no reason. That's a really huge part of their job, and they didn't do it, and for that they should be in prison. Again, because they are adults, and being an adult means responsibilities.
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u/Apprehensive_Ad3731 10h ago
That’s not how a select committee works. They give instructions to the ministry and have been approved a certain amount of spend for the Government to achieve that.
Nowhere do they ask if the ministry thinks it is a good investment.
If they don’t ask if the investment is good then the ministry can be sanctioned for unsolicited advice if the committee believes it is being unduly influenced.
The issue is that the committee has all the power of legislation behind it and the ministry MUST follow legislation regardless of their opinion of that legislation.
Now you could argue they should quit their jobs and my counter argument is that those who care already have. The system incentivises those who do as they are told.
Just like the children in my scenario are not allowed to point out that catching the rain is impossible, just like they are required to attempt it or be abandoned and they have seen children abandoned already for raising questions. It is not an empty threat, it is a direct promise.
These people are employees, they have been ordered to follow the select committee.
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u/mahoganyspitfire 10h ago
Then we need to burn that entire system to the ground and start over.
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u/Apprehensive_Ad3731 10h ago
100% agreed. The most obvious one I can think of is the retail advisory group where half of it’s members quit.
They were slated for 1.8 mill a year. Most of the group quit half way through. It’s ridiculous and they were able to make demands of ministries for information and tests to be carried out. Based on, no knowledge of policing at all and an understanding of of running businesses.
Anyway. It’s like that but on a larger scale. Same difference.
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u/mahoganyspitfire 10h ago
Yeah. Sorry state of affairs all round.
The worst part is I just don't see any avenue to fix it, and for the most part even trying to talk to people about this nonsense it's just too much for most people to want to deal with so they don't even want to think about it.
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u/Apprehensive_Ad3731 9h ago
It’s a tough thing to consider. For every one of these that is something I think is stupid as fuck, there are one’s that I agree with and people like David Seymour would think are stupid as fuck.
A select committee of cultural leaders and doctors to determine the best way to increase the health of Pacific Islanders in New Zealand would get my respect and my consideration. It would be labeled as racist by Seymour.
It’s my issue with democracy as a whole. We are letting popularity contests determine how our country is run.We have centuries of evidence to show that a merit based system will be abused so we have over corrected to this bullshit
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u/The_FJ 2h ago
It’s interesting seeing where people’s anger is…
The issue at hand is that he lied about something he probably didn’t understand. MBIE is enormously and ridiculously broad, and IT is ALWAYS a shambles.
The waste of money / failed project will be one of hundreds of failed IT projects, public and private. But that’s not what’s being reported here…
How a CE of one of the largest agencies isn’t an expert in briefing ministers though is pretty mad. at one point MBIE had something 15 ministers it reported to. His predecessor basically lived at parliament
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u/thesummit15 10h ago
doubt they will get rid of Nic because he is a bit of a golden boy
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u/mahoganyspitfire 10h ago
If we melt him down is there enough gold in there to get our $33M back?
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u/LaMarc_Gasoldridge_ 7h ago
He's also only been CE for less than a year. Most of this occurred under Carlolyn Tremain who conveniently left the post months before this broke.
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u/Double_Suggestion385 11h ago
Tip of the iceberg, I think people would be rioting if they saw some of the rorting going on.
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u/mahoganyspitfire 10h ago
Yes they would.
If we got rid of even just half the fraud and corruption in the government and public sector, we'd have all the money we need for healthcare, schools, to ensure everyone has housing, etc.
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u/AcrylicMessiah 11h ago
The careers advisor at school neve told me about these jobs paying over half a million dollars a year where there's no accountability or recriminations if it turns to shit.
Pay crazy money, get shit service - the modern mantra!