Immigration NZ faces audit after bungled tech upgrade
Immigration Minister Erica Stanford has ordered an independent audit after discovering an additional $6 million in wasted costs related to a failed tech upgrade. The total cost blowout for the project has now reached nearly $40 million.
Why it matters
Exposes government mismanagement and financial waste, raising questions about accountability and oversight in public sector projects.
Immigration Minister Erica Stanford has revealed that at least another $6 million was wasted on her department's bungled tech upgrade, resulting in a cost blow out of almost $40 million.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has now commissioned an independent financial auditor to try establish the full scale of the mess.
Stanford last month accused her officials of deliberately withholding information about the mess and using "creative accounting" to avoid scrutiny.
At the time, she said more than $30m and seven years of work had been wasted with nothing to show for it.
In a fresh statement released on Wednesday, Stanford said her staff had since discovered an error in information provided by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.
In response to questions, the ministry's chief executive Nic Blakeley then advised her that another $6m in "associated project costs" had been identified.
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