From 'achievable' to 'unlikely' in nine days: Immigration NZ's botched $35m project
Immigration New Zealand is under investigation after officials allegedly withheld information from the minister regarding a failed $35 million IT project. The project, intended for biometric upgrades, was abandoned following years of delays and mismanagement.
Why it matters
This highlights significant governance and transparency failures within a government ministry, leading to substantial taxpayer waste.
Senior Immigration New Zealand officials repeatedly ignored requests from the minister's office and progressed work on a project the minister hadn't agreed to extra funding for, according to new documents released to RNZ.
The hundreds of pages of correspondence paint a picture of the processes the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment (MBIE), which the Immigration department sits within, used to pursue a now abandoned IT upgrade.
Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche has appointed Michael Heron KC to investigate "integrity concerns" after Immigration Minister Erica Stanford revealed last month her officials "deliberately witheld" information from both her and the previous government.
That and accusations of "creative accounting" were laid out in a damning review into the department's handling of the project .
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