![\"MBIE](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4JMLIJU_lakeley_and_mcdonald_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nTop ministry officials have been found in contempt of Parliament, with the Privileges Committee ruling they deliberately misled MPs about a bungled multi-million dollar IT project.<\/p>\n
The committee delivered its verdict on the extraordinary saga on Wednesday, but stopped short of recommending any further sanction for MBIE boss Nic Blakeley or former-Immigration NZ head Alison McDonald.<\/p>\n
RNZ has approached the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) for comment.<\/p>\n
During a select committee appearance in March, both Blakeley and McDonald were asked about the progress of a biometric upgrade programme, but they failed to disclose that that project had already been cancelled.<\/p>\n
In its findings – published on Wednesday – the Privileges Committee said the officials would have known their incomplete answers would leave MPs with a false impression.<\/p>\n
“The limited manner in which the ministry answered questions… was intentional,” it said.<\/p>\n
“We find that the ministry deliberately misled the Education and Workforce Committee and, in doing so, committed a contempt.”<\/p>\n
The report said it was “alarming” that neither of the senior public servants were aware they could have requested to provide evidence in private or secret.<\/p>\n
“We wish to be very clear: officials appearing before select committees have an absolute obligation to tell the truth. Being truthful, responsible, and acting in good faith is the very essence of public service.<\/p>\n
“To fail to meet these obligations is an insult to the entire public service.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
MBIE chief executive Nic Blakeley, and the now retired head of INZ Alison McDonald, at select committee in March.<\/p>\n
Screenshot \/ New Zealand Parliament<\/p>\n
The committee did not recommend any further punishment given the officials had already publicly apologised: “We intend that our findings will be of sufficient consequence on their own.”<\/p>\n
Blakeley took over as chief executive of MBIE in January 2026. His salary has yet to be published, but his predecessor was paid in excess of $600,000 a year.<\/p>\n
When giving evidence in July, Blakeley admitted the ministry got it wrong, but denied a deliberate attempt to mislead.<\/p>\n
He said officials believed they could not reveal the project’s cancellation because MBIE was still negotiating a final payment with Japanese technology company NEC.<\/p>\n
“We felt that we’d [addressed] the questions as best we could, given the limitations we were under,” Blakeley told MPs.<\/p>\n
Blakeley refused to answer questions from reporters after the hearing, saying he would wait for the committee’s findings.<\/p>\n
MBIE’s conduct surrounding the failed project is also being investigated by former Solicitor-General Michael Heron KC at the behest of the Public Service Commission.<\/p>\n
That investigation is looking into whether MBIE was fully upfront with ministers about the project over its full seven year timeline and whether or not they engaged in “creative accounting”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Top ministry officials have been found in contempt of Parliament, with the Privileges Committee ruling they deliberately misled…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-580385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}