Heads could roll at Immigration NZ as Public Service Commissioner investigates integrity

6:16 am today

Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche has launched an investigation to examine concerns about integrity at Immigration NZ.

Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone

Officials at the country's immigration department could be sacked following accusations staff intentionally misled ministers and avoided Cabinet scrutiny.

An independent report released on Tuesday identified major flaws in the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment's handling of a biometrics upgrade project, resulting in a waste of more than $30 million by the time it was scrapped in December.

Immigration Minister Erica Stanford was furious, saying officials deliberately withheld information from both her and the previous Labour government, and used "creative accounting" to avoid Cabinet scrutiny.

Immigration Minister Erica Stanford.

Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii

The Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche has launched an investigation, which would examine concerns about integrity.

MBIE chief executive Nic Blakeley - who took up the role in January but had been in the senior leadership team since 2023 - said people could lose their jobs as a result.

"After the Public Service Commission's investigation into the integrity, I will then undertake a further review ... from an employment perspective, if that's appropriate given what the Public Service Commission finds," he said.

"All options will be on the table."

Blakeley laid out several concerns about integrity: "The accusation of creative accounting ... what was told to ministers, and when ... whether ministers were fully informed or in fact given explicitly incorrect information, and also ... people [raising concerns] were not listened to and potentially moved out of the project."

There were passionate people working on the project, and none of them wanted it to fail, Blakeley said.

"What the review finds, though, is ... these failings in governance, oversight, the sort of things that you would expect to be in place for a project of this size, that weren't."

Blakeley committed to a stocktake of all MBIE's projects to ensure those failings were not widespread, and said he would be seeking independent assurance on that.

In a statement, Sir Brian said the report's findings were serious and concerning.

"They go to the core of the behaviours and ethics required of public servants, and the ability of Ministers to have confidence in the advice they receive from officials," he said.

In 2024, RNZ drew attention to major problems and delays plaguing the Biometric Capability Upgrade.

The report into the project, released by Immigration New Zealand on Tuesday, said the agency launched it in 2018 without ministerial sign-off, then pivoted to an "off-shelf model" in 2020 without due diligence.

The author Greg James said officials persisted despite multiple red flags, including delays, missed milestones and significant inadequacies.

"Despite escalating costs, the project continued for several years before ultimately being stopped [in 2025], having delivered no measurable benefits while incurring significant cost overruns."

The report found ministerial reporting throughout had been inconsistent and occasionally misrepresented the project's true status.

Stanford said the findings were "almost as bad as it gets".

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