Those are my principles. If you don’t like them I have others

Groucho Marx - legendary wit and comedian

What makes this so good as a quote is the fact that we can probably all think of someone who might well behave like this in reality, for example a politician.

TVNZ had 2 items this evening on the Immigration Scandal. One was about Ms Thompson and her qualifications the other was about problems in the Immigration Services Pacific Division. This post discusses the problems in the Pacific Division.

The video clip is linked here or it can be accessed from the TVNZ site here.

Text comment follows:-

The troubled Immigration Service is again under fire with news staff at its Pacific division have been involved in a raft of offences including bribery and fraud.

It follows the resignation this week of Immigration boss Mary Anne Thompson after ONE News revealed she had used her position to get family into the country.

ONE News has obtained shocking figures under the Official Information Act that show Immigration’s Pacific division has been rife with dodgy dealings for years.

The Pacific division decides the fate of thousands of Pacific Islanders desperate to live in New Zealand. Instead, it has been a disaster, besieged with dishonest and corrupt staff.

“I think that unfortunately it’s the extreme end of the culture that I referred to as a nod nod wink culture,” says Richard Small, immigration lawyer.

Now in an earlier post, part of which Adam reproduces below, we can see Ms Thompson going public on how many of these issues were being tackled under her leadership.

Immigration Scandal-Update 4

Looking for the Oughton Report, which supposedly released by the Labour Dept, Adam has as yet been unable to find, he came across this item, which he had previously missed, from the NZ Herald on May 3 2008. This is discussed below.

It has led Adam to conclude that there are further questions which he hopes the inquiry underway will address.

Some of these questions are amplifications of issues Adam has discussed in prior posts.

Some are new.

In March 2006, Immigration Service head Mary Anne Thompson went public about an investigation into 92 cases of staff misconduct.

“The department does not tolerate wrongdoing and all our employees know that. We take allegations very seriously and investigate them all,” she said.

The problems, she said, included theft, undeclared criminal convictions and inappropriate processing of family member applications.

So previously, the head of the Immigration Service had been telling the public about the strict standards of probity in force within the department and what from her remarks could be construed by the public as a zero tolerance approach.

The OneNews report continued:-

Around 60 people work at the Pacific division. But ONE News has discovered in just three years from 2004, 19 cases of serious offences were proven against staff there, including theft, bribery and fraud.

From those 19 cases, nine people were fired or resigned and three were referred to police.

So it would be reasonable to assume then that these 19 cases formed part of the 92 mentioned in the report excerpted in Adam’s earlier post.

A reasonable assumption might be that some of those involved committed multiple offences, so let us thus assume the 19 offences were committed by only 9 people.

• Now a first question might well be, why were any of these people allowed to resign?
• Were any of those who resigned in receipt of a pay out for remainder of contract?
• What happened in respect of those cases referred to police and why only 3 referred?
• How many of these people were recruited by Ms Thompson or her appointee Kerupi Tavita (Group Manager for Pacific and refugees) and his appointee Mai Malaulau ( responsible for Pacific Division)?

Adam’s initial post on this issue discusses questions concerning these 2 people in depth and their positions and relationships are described in this Stuff item.

The TVNZ item finishes thus:-

The Department of Labour has launched a review of the Pacific division which was the brainchild of its disgraced boss Mary Anne Thompson.

A former Pacific division employee told ONE News last month that she felt pressured by senior management to break the rules.

“You sort of don’t want to rock the boat, do your job even [though] you know it was wrong, so I did it,” Sarah Flesher said.

The Pacific community has long complained about staff at the division.

Last year, the Residency Review Board was scathing about how the division handled many of its cases. It listed a raft of failures including unfairness, inaccuracy and breaches of justice.

“I believe that hundreds of Pacific families have potentially not been given access to correct policy or correct processes,” Small said last December.

That is hardly surprising given the activities of some of the staff they had to deal with.

So the Pacific Division established by Thompson and overseen by one of her inner circle and his appointee was responsible for some 18% of transgressions against policy and the law. That is those cases which are known about and in respect of which some action has been taken.

Now we might then want to know the answers to the following questions, amongst many others, viz:-

• Where within the Immigration Service were the other cases included in the 92 mentioned in the excerpt above?
• Did the 92 in fact include the 19 in the Pacific division?
• What action was taken in respect of the other cases?
• What was the nature of all these cases?
• How many staff were fired or allowed to resign?
• Why were staff allowed to resign?
• Were any staff paid off?
• How many cases were referred to police and what was the outcome of those referrals?
• Have the code of ethics and conduct been revised to assist in eliminating such conduct?
• Has the disciplinary policy and process been tightened to enable prompt and decisive action to be taken against other transgressors?
• However, are there other cases which have yet to come to light?
• Further, given the comments of the Residency Review Board why was action not taken earlier to see what was going on in the Pacific Division?
• What action has been taken to review policy and procedure across the Immigration Service with a view to benchmarking the service, its staff and processes against other organisations?
• If this has not been done, why has it not been done?
• What was the CEO of Labour doing all this time, after all he was Thompson’s boss?
• Surely as CEO he should have been monitoring the actions taken by the Immigration Service in response to the Residency review Board report?
• What was Thompson telling Christopher Blake her boss?
• Why was Blake so tolerant of the shortcomings of the Immigration Service?
• What did Thompson’s annual performance appraisal say about her performance in her role, in each of the years she was in office?
• Was Thompson paid any performance bonus in any of the years she was responsible for Immigration?
• If so on what grounds were such payments made?
• Given what appears to have been happening in the Pacific Division are the grounds for concern in respect of other areas within the Immigration Service?
• What action is being taken to review policy and procedures to reduce the risk of these breaches/offences recurring?
• Are Immigration Service recruitment policies at fault?
• How does the record of the Immigration Service compare with other departments within government.

Adam repeats his call for a proper judicial inquiry rather than reliance on an internal SSC inquiry.

AN external inquiry if necessary to ensure the the full extent of what has been going on within the Immigration Service and the Department of Labour is brought out into the open and the suppurating boil that is this organisation is lanced once and for all.

Nothing more or less will do.

It should be done now, with an interim report to be issues within 3 months from now, or sooner.

This is needed to restore confidence in the public service.

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Other posts by Adam on this matter

Immigration Scandal

Update 1

Update 2

Update 3

Update 4

Update 5

Update 6 (essentially a note of an event - not a detailed comment)

Update 7

Update 8 - similar to Number 6

Update 9

Update 10

Colin Espiner blogs about Cullen’s pre-budget speech in Christchurch today. Paula Oliver has an article on the NZ Herald site.

Both journalists seemed to think they were at a farewell, or indeed a rather staid funeral for a grumpy old uncle. He is not dead, but he might well have been for all the notice that was being taken of him.

Is it time to read Cullen’s political obituary or has he got something expensive and vote buying up his sleeve for the budget?

Was he merely dampening expectations?

Is he manipulating us all again?

Or is he saving money for the election campaign so that he scatter money around like confetti, calling it prudent, whilst castigating National for secret agendas.

It is very suspect also that a confluence of events means interest rates are starting to come down, prior to the election.

Sydney Morning Herald on the Australian Federal Budget

Colin Espiner blogged about the Thompson Affair yesterday. To Adam the key bit is here when he is commenting on the Department of Labour and Immigration Service behaviours when the matter first arose:-

The story was big enough for then Immigration Minister David Cunliffe to be informed, and for an inquiry to be launched.

That the whole thing was then swept under the carpet was a disgrace, and a sham for which the government must take some responsibility. Hiding behind ”privacy” arguments and the provisions of State Sector Act which forbid ministers interfering in employment matters is pretty farcical. It’s never stopped them before, either.

At the very least the government could have demanded that the inquiry into Thompson’s actions be made public, or threaten to make it public themselves if the Labour Department refused to. Instead it has sat by and watched as the department fought tooth and nail to avoid the Official Information Act requests made by media trying to get to the bottom of the story.

Even yesterday, Cunliffe was trying to wriggle out of admitting to reporters just how long he had known about the cloud over Thompson’s employment. He was then undone in Parliament by Acting Prime Minister Michael Cullen, who admitted the Cunliffe had known since April last year.

The current minister, Clayton Cosgrove, meanwhile claims he only found out about it in December when he was briefed by officials. It’s amazing that his close friend and colleague David Cunliffe had never mentioned it.

This wouldn’t be so bad if it didn’t involve a department with a history of obfuscation bordering on outright dishonesty. Immigration has a record of blocking media requests for information. In 2003 its then communications manager Ian Smith made his infamous “lie in unison” comment.

Smith who wrote on an official document that he was badly let down by his colleagues because “everyone had agreed to lie in unison but all the others caved in and I was the only one left singing the original song”.

This is as Espiner notes a department and service with an appalling record of obfuscation and deceit.

One is left wondering what they have to hide.

Politically this does not look good either.

Cunliffe knew last April, so when did Clark and Cullen know and just what did they know?

If Cunliffe knew, Adam thinks Cosgrove knew also.

The politicians have been trying to keep this quiet, else why did they not bring it into the open sooner.

• What skeletons are waiting to be dug up?
• What is yet to emerge into the light of day from the twilight zone that is the Immigration Service?

Colin Espiner’s comments reinforce the need for a full scale judicial inquiry.

*******************************

Other posts by Adam on this matter

Immigration Scandal

Update 1

Update 2

Update 3

Update 4

Update 5

Update 6 (essentially a note of an event - not a detailed comment)

Update 7

Update 8 - similar to Number 6

Update 9

Update 11

This from the Financial Times on world food prices:-

The soaring food prices that have triggered global political and economic turmoil over the past year have finally shown the first tentative signs of stabilising.

The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation food price index, considered the best measure of global food inflation, saw its first decline in 15 months in April, as wheat, dairy, sugar and soyabean prices fell.

The article finished with:-

The last time the FAO food index posted a monthly drop was in January 2007, but that proved a blip. This time officials are more confident that some prices will stop rising or even fall as farmers plant more crops to take advantage of record prices amid better weather than last year.

Agriculture experts warned prices could continue to rise because of the growing appetite for crops for the biofuels industry and bad weather, such as the cyclone in Burma.

They said retail prices could also keep climbing even if wholesale food inflation stabilises, as companies pass on previous increases to consumers.

It will be interesting to see whether any impact registers here as regards dairy products and the fortunes of Fonterra.

Adam has written before here,here, here, here, here, here , here and here, about this marvellous series from the Folkways Collection of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D. C., originally done in conjunction with CKUA Radio in Canada, being broadcast on National Radio just after the 11 pm news on Friday Nights. Podcast available here.

WARNING: If you open the link to National Radio using Firefox, you may find your browser closes unexpectedly. The site seems to work better with IE7.

Episode 17: Voices of History
A significant section of the Folkways collection is devoted to documentaries and oral history. This program gives the listener a sense of the remarkable material contained within these recordings and a sense of the foresight which Moses Asch demonstrated in preserving this material for future generations.

If like Adam you are looking for information on Burma, then you might find these sites of interest:-

Irrawaddy News

Jotman

Voices for Burma

BOGALE, Myanmar — It is a disaster still shrouded in secrecy. The world is growing accustomed to seeing images of devastation, from earthquakes or calamitous storms, as they unfold. Here the military dictatorship continues to cordon off the areas worst hit by Cyclone Nargis on May 3, and so little is known about the extent of the devastation, how aid is reaching those in need — or extraordinary stories of survival and death like that of Than Lwin.

SO begins an article in the New York Times on villagers striving to survive in the tragedy that is Burma.

The stories are astounding and harrowing.

Where to start is the question. The Immigration Scandal just keeps on spreading. Having lost a major post yesterday, Adam was going to try and recompile it, but seeing the coverage in the media today, plus the radio coverage on Moaning Report and Holmes on ZB, he has decided to take as a starting point today’s Dominion Post editorial.

This is the second editorial by the Dominion Post on this matter, they previously wrote on this matter on 8 May 2008. See Immigration Scandal - Update Number 5.

The editorial commences as follows:-

The departure of Mary Anne Thompson as head of the immigration service should not allow ministers and the mandarins of the public service to treat the issue as tidied away, The Dominion Post writes.

Absolutely correct, but Adam suspects that some will try and do just that. This must not be allowed to happen. It is the case that in recent days more and more issues have come to light, raising new questions which require the light of a truly independent inquiry to be shone on them.

It is essential that the terms of reference of the current SSC inquiry be broad and far reaching, not narrowly focused on the actions of Ms Thompson. A narrowly focused inquiry would enable the very substantive issues requiring investigation to be avoided.

As the Dominion Post says:-

The questions raised by the Thompson episode go beyond her incredible misjudgment in becoming involved in members of her extended family seeking New Zealand residency. They go beyond the questions that have now been referred to the police by the State Services Commission relating to the qualifications she said she held when she applied for senior roles in the public service.

Indeed they do, as noted in Adam’s first post on this subject, a number of questions need answering in relation to the roles of :-

• Kerupi Tavita, and
• Mai Malaulau

These two were deeply involved in the inappropriate processing of Ms Thompson’s relatives residency applications according to an article on the Stuff website. There are substantive questions which need to be answered about how these two people came to be employed by the Immigration Service and potential conflicts of interest that exist.

This affair raises major concerns as to the governance processes and policies in force not just within Department of Labour and the Immigration Services, but within the broader public service.

The Dominion then comments:-

The way the episode has unfolded is typical of the approach taken by this administration. Faced with embarrassing eruptions such as the Setchell affair, the Government initially hangs tough and denies there is a problem. If brazening it out does not work and public concern reaches a tipping point, there is an attempt to isolate the issue with a timely resignation or two, often combined with ministerial protestations that it is an operational matter. Then the message goes out that it is all over, there’s nothing more to be revealed, everything is now squeaky clean and it’s time to move on.

How true, neatly illustrated by Clayton Cosgrove on Morning Report seeking to avoid answering questions by Sean Plunket by asserting it was an operational matter and/or an employment issue.

Quite clearly that is not the case here.

This affair involves several government departments given Thompson’s past career, several Ministers and a number of senior officials past and present. Again as the Dominion Post says

That is not what is needed now. The departure of Ms Thompson should have been inevitable and swift once irregularities in the way residency approvals granted to three members of her extended family were revealed in the report prepared by former justice secretary David Oughton.

Questions need to be asked about the Oughton report, including:-

• What were the terms of reference?
• Why were the conclusions reached, those conclusions?
• How rigourous was the Oughton Inquiry?
• Why was prompt and appropriate action not taken on completion of the Oughton report?
• Why was Ms Thompson not sacked after the Oughton Report?

Other questions which need answering include:-

• Why was Ms Thompson allowed to resign?
• Why did she only go after the affair became public?
• Why did the Labour Department seek to keep the Oughton Report secret? Was it because of their inaction? Was it because there is a complete breakdown of governance?
• Is the Thompson affair a symptom of a wider malaise within the NZ Public Service, where cronyism is tolerated and senior staff can bend the rules without fear of discipline?
• Did Clayton Cosgrove’s predecessor as Immigration Ministter know what was going?
• How long has the government known about this?

Given what has now emerged it seems quite wrong for the State Services Commission to be conducting the Inquiry and indeed for Mark Prebble to have any involvement at all considering that he and Thompson were colleagues at the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.

The Dominion Post further comments:-

That is bad enough, but the problem is wider than one application signed by Ms Thompson. An official quoted in the report speaks of “difficult” cases being passed around staff till someone who would do what was wanted was found. Mr Oughton was also concerned over staff recording “as instructed by” on the papers to protect themselves when making decisions they regarded as breaching policy.

So we need to know:-

• Just what is happening in the Immigration Service?
• Why are these ’stand over’ tactics being employed?
• What action, if any, was taken in respect of these findings by Oughton?
• If action was taken has it been effective?
• If no action has been taken, why has it not been taken?
• Who was charged with monitoring the actions which should have been taken post Oughton, or was no one so charged?
• What is the role played by Christopher Blake, Current DOL CEO and his predecessor James Buwalda in all of this?

The editorial concludes:-

Last month Prime Minister Helen Clark called the episode a staff matter that had been dealt with by the chief executive. That is the line the Government was continuing to peddle yesterday. It is not credible.

Miss Clark is right that Ms Thompson’s future was an employment matter and no concern of ministers. However, preserving the reputation and ensuring the proper running of a service that has a huge impact on people’s lives is. It is shameful that ministers refuse to recognise that.

The Government’s line is not credible.

The Inquiring Mind repeats it’s earlier view:-

1 The inquiry should be conducted by a judge.

2 The inquiry should have the power to compel evidence

3 The inquiry should be required to report on the specifics as soon as possible and on the broader implications for the Immigration Service and the public service as soon as possible thereafter.

4 The inquiry should address all aspects of this case, not just the actions of Ms Thompson, the inquiry should be wide ranging, comprehensive and truly independent.

At this time there are two major concerns:-

1 How can the public have confidence in the higher echelons of the public service to administer the Immigration Act impartially and without fear or favour?

2 Can the public have any confidence in the public service when this affair appears to demonstrate major ethical and managerial shortcomings?

**********************************

Adam’s previous posts on this matter are listed here:

Immigration Scandal

Update 1

Update 2

Update 3

Update 4

Update 5

Update 6 (essentially a note of an event - not a detailed comment)

Update 7

Update 8 - similar to Number 6

Update 10 - wider ramifications

Update 11 - TVNZ News re Pacific Division

]]> http://adamsmith.wordpress.com/2008/05/15/654/feed/ Adam Smith