Senior immigration officials repeatedly ignored requests from the minister’s office and progressed work on the project, despite Stanford never agreeing to extra funding.
The now-abandoned BCU wasted at least $40 million of taxpayers’ money, before being scrapped by Immigration NZ.
Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche tasked Heron with looking into “integrity concerns” within the department, after Stanford revealed officials “deliberately withheld” information from both her and the previous Government.
Last week, the chief executive of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, which immigration sits within, fronted the Privileges Committee to explain to MPs why he hadn’t alerted Parliament sooner that the project had been canned.
The issue was raised as a matter of privilege by Labour’s Phil Twyford, after chief executive Nic Blakely fronted the Education and Workforce committee in March, and was asked about the key risks and milestones in the project’s implementation, but at no point told MPs it had been terminated.
Michael Heron KC is leading an inquiry into Immigration NZ. Photo / RNZ, Marika Khabazi
Speaking at the privileges committee last Tuesday evening, Blakely admitted “we got it wrong – I accept that – and we should have said differently”.
Blakely said he had a “genuinely held belief” there were budget and commercial sensitivities limiting what he could say publicly.
That appearance and some of his answers caught the attention of Stanford’s office, and led to her telling media the following day that it was now clear at least another $6m had been wasted on the project, bringing the total to more than $40m.
Stanford referred that new information to Heron to consider as part of his inquiry, after Blakely confirmed to the minister “he cannot be confident this further $6m represents the full extent of expenditure … and he has made the decision to commission an independent financial audit”.
In addition to concerns about the ministry’s financial controls, Stanford has now alerted Heron to another instance where it appears officials were trying to withhold further information from the minister.
Two differing accounts
One of the two weekly reports in question appears to have been summarised in a more positive light, without any mention of cost blowouts, when provided to Stanford.
In March 2024, Stanford’s office had started asking questions about the project and requested additional information about BCU, including any advice provided previously to Little.
Among other things, Stanford received an update on BCU’s progress covering the week August 2-8 of the previous year – before she was minister.
The update was signed off by immigration risk and border general manager Richard Owen, and noted the project reached a “major milestone” on July 24, “following satisfactory security assurance testing”.
While the current go-live date was set down for mid-November 2023, the update said “this remains at risk” and depended on tests, finalisation of commercial negotiations and visa processing peaks.
“Further updates will be provided, as each of these aspects is completed and worked through – with a back-up go-live date in early 2024, if required”, but a later report received by Stanford painted a different picture.
Last month, when the ministry sent Stanford’s office a package of documents it was planning to proactively release, the original weekly report sent to Little and his associate minister, Rachel Brooking, surfaced.
That report was put together by deputy chief operating officer Simon Sanders, and deputy secretary Alison McDonald and general manager Jivan Grewal were also included in the correspondence.
In that 2023 update, it also said BCU had passed a “major project milestone”, but noted delivery in mid-November 2023 looked unlikely and “it has now become evident that this date is no longer feasible nor possible, and a new go-live date of March 2024 is proposed”.
It noted, as the project duration had extended, both the vendor and ministry had suffered increased costs.
“These delays and also a review of the whole of life cost of the project has meant that the budget will now exceed the previously agreed cost of $35m that the Minister of Immigration recently approved. It is evident that the whole-of-life costs will now more likely be in the region of $45m.
“Given the new cost exceeds ministerial delegation, this will now require cabinet approval to proceed.”
The update went on to say the ministry was “in the process of preparing a paper for the minister to summarise the current state of the project and in parallel, will prepare a paper for the minister to take to cabinet as well, if the minister is supportive of this approach”.
None of the information about the cost blowouts had been passed on to Stanford, when her office requested all advice and documents related to the project.
Both reports have now been passed on to Heron to investigate further and determine whether the information had been deliberately kept from Stanford.
Stanford had nothing further to say about the matter, when RNZ asked whether this had further shaken her confidence in both her ministry officials and the chief executive.
Likewise, the ministry would not comment, while the inquiry was underway.