Radio New Zealand
Wellington, May 24, 2017
Auditor General Martin Matthews will stand down while an independent review is held into his appointment, Parliament Speaker David Carter has said.
Mr Matthews led the Ministry of Transport while a large-scale fraud was carried out by one of its senior managers, Joanne Harrison.
Harrison was sentenced in February to three years and seven months in prison for stealing $723,000 from the ministry.
She also tricked another government agency into hiring her husband, and got a job for a friend who was on the ministry’s payroll for 10 months but never turned up or did any work.
Mr Matthews has said he regretted that Harrison’s fraud occurred under his watch and wished he had detected it earlier.
Speaker David Carter called the multi-party committee that appointed Mr Matthews to the position of Auditor General to a meeting this afternoon to discuss whether they needed to review that move.
Mr Carter, who chairs the Committee, said that the decision to conduct the review was unanimous.
Review next week
He said that Sir Maarten Wevers has agreed to undertake the review and hoped to start the work next Wednesday and have it competed in a fortnight.
Separately, the State Services Commission is taking over the investigation into the treatment of whistle-blowers at the ministry who raised red flags about Harrison.
Former employees went public this week with concerns they were forced out of their jobs after speaking up about Harrison.
The Ministry launched its own investigation into those claims last week.
Staff concerns
As far back as 2013, staff at the Ministry of Transport were alerting Mr Matthews to what they regarded as Harrison’s astounding behaviour.
She created fake companies and paid them for work that was never done and refused to cooperate with an internal investigation.
Mr Matthews removed Harrison from her position after an external audit in 2016.
Winston Peters Comments
New Zealand First Leader and Member of Parliament Winston Peters said:
The Speaker’s statement that the decision for an inquiry into Martin Matthews’ suitability as Auditor General was unanimous was not correct.
New Zealand First from the start asked for Martin Matthews to step down while a full independent inquiry happened.
We made it clear at the Officers of Parliament Committee today that we wanted to discuss the appointment and the terms of reference as a party and with the party’s leader.
This, after all, is a Parliamentary-appointed Committee.
We have not had a chance to discuss the terms of reference of the suggested Inquirer.
This meeting was a last-minute event.
It has the hands of the Beehive all over it.
Yesterday they did not want a bar of it, suddenly they are ramrodding it through.
Damage control
There is a big effort now to damage control the situation. We do not want a civil service and government that is trying to foreclose on this issue.
We have insisted all along that Mr Matthews should stand down.
It was a clear case of lack of transparency and accountability over Mr Mathews’ action around the fraud of senior manager Joanne Harrison, when she worked under him when he was CEO at the Ministry of Transport.
There was ample information to show that a spotlight needed to be shone on every detail through an independent inquiry.
Fraud was occurring, the person in charge did nothing till just before his departure from the ministry, and he was soon appointed to a top job.
The National government sat on its hands, tried to deflect responsibility, defended Mr Matthews, and ignored the circumstances of the whistle-blowers.
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Photo Caption:
Martin Matthews
Picture Courtesy: New Zealand Herald
