Immigration Minister Erica Stanford has issued a scathing takedown of her ministry, saying officials “deliberately withheld” information from both her and the previous Labour government about a failed technology upgrade and used “creative accounting” to avoid scrutiny.
Appearing before MPs at a Scrutiny Week appearance on Tuesday morning, Stanford said Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche would investigate “integrity concerns” raised by a damning review.
Sitting alongside her, Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) chief executive Nic Blakeley offered an apology to MPs and said he took accountability on behalf on his department.
“I’m committed to learning from this and implementing change.”
In 2024, RNZ drew attention to major problems and delays plaguing the Biometric Capability Upgrade.
Immigration Minister Erica Stanford.
Photo: RNZ/Nick Monro
An independent report – released by Immigration New Zealand (INZ) on Tuesday – identified major flaws in the department’s handling of the project, resulting in a waste of more than $30 million.
The report’s author Greg James said INZ launched the project in 2018 without ministerial sign-off, then pivoted to an “off-shelf model” in 2020 without due diligence.
He 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: “at times overly optimistic, and occasionally misrepresenting the true status of the project”.
Stanford said this year’s Budget included a $31.2 million write-off of the project.
“After seven years, MBIE somehow spent tens of millions of dollars. Not only do we have nothing to show for it, but we are now in a position of having to maintain the existing aging infrastructure while a new solution is sought.”
Stanford said the findings were “very serious” and “almost as bad as it gets”.
“Firstly, ministers were misled. Secondly, people were moved from the project when they raised concerns. And thirdly, and this is quite serious, creative accounting practices had been undertaken to keep costs of the project below Cabinet’s mandated limit,” she said.
“Those are extraordinarily serious findings of the report.”
Stanford said it appeared to her that MBIE “deliberately withheld information” from former Labour government ministers and did not seek ministerial approval for required cost increases.
“It’s supposed to be signed out [by Cabinet] every time the whole of life cost goes up, as far as I’ve been advised, and that seemingly did not happen, and even when it did happen, the advice was very minimal,” she said.
“From what I’ve been told, things were done that required Cabinet oversight in order to keep it away from Cabinet, so splitting the project into two parts.”
She said officials later gave her advice that turned out to be “complete fiction” and sought more funding without declaring that previous requests had been declined.
Stanford spoke to the Public Service Commissioner on Friday and requested he undertake an integrity review, she said. She declined to say how high she believed the conduct went in MBIE’s management hierarchy.
Blakeley said he found the review to be a “very difficult read” and was “extremely disappointed”.
He acknowledged serious failings in oversight and governance and said he was prepared to undertake employment investigations depending on the findings of the Public Service Commissioner.
“I’ve already apologised to ministers, and I would apologise to New Zealanders who expect better from MBIE than this project,” he said.
“I take integrity very seriously.”
Stanford said her confidence in MBIE had been knocked by the saga, pointing out that the review had been delivered to the ministry two months ago, but only passed on to her on Friday.
Blakeley said that delay was due to a “wrong call” by officials who decided to provide a reponse alongside the report.
Stanford added: “Can I just note, though, in that preceding two months, there was no response provided.”
In a statement, Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche said he would appoint an independent investigator to look into the saga and make recommendations.
“The integrity matters highlighted by the report are serious and concerning,” Sir Brian said.
“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.”
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