\u201cThe ministry would have been aware that in choosing to answer as it did it was certain that the committee would have been misled as to the status of the BCU project. <\/p>\n
\u201cOn this basis, we find that the ministry deliberately misled the Education and Workforce Committee and, in doing so, committed a contempt.\u201d<\/p>\n
The committee, made up of cross-party MPs, did not recommend further sanction; its report saying apologies already offered were sufficient. <\/p>\n
Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche did not accept Blakeley’s resignation. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell <\/p>\n
In a statement, Roche said the findings were \u201cextremely serious\u201d and \u201ccompletely unacceptable\u201d, a point he had made clear to all public service chief executives. <\/p>\n
However, he refused Blakeley\u2019s resignation offer as he didn\u2019t believe it would be \u201cfair or proportionate\u201d, noting the committee didn\u2019t call for further sanction.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr Blakeley was only six weeks into the chief executive role when this occurred. That does not excuse what happened, but they are factors I considered in reaching my decision about his position.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several reviews are underway on the BCU project and other IT projects within MBIE. Blakeley and Roche have also committed to strengthening training and guidance for select committee appearances. <\/p>\n
\u201cMr Blakeley is responsible for ensuring the failures identified by the Committee are addressed. I will hold him accountable for delivering that work \u2013 there is no misunderstanding on that point,\u201d Roche said. <\/p>\n
In a statement, Blakeley said he accepted the findings and took responsibility. <\/p>\n
\u201cAccountability rests with me. Parliament, Ministers and the public are entitled to expect better from MBIE. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy focus now is making sure a failure of this nature does not happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n
His statement omitted the fact he had offered his resignation. <\/p>\n
MBIE has not yet responded to the Herald as to why it was not included. <\/p>\n
Immigration Minister Erica Stanford revealed the project’s failings earlier this year. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell <\/p>\n
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said deliberately misleading MPs was unacceptable, but believed the outcome was \u201cfair\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019d been in the role six [weeks] and he\u2019d [not been] advised correctly by his officials so I think they\u2019ve got to a good outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n
The scandal concerning the BCU project was revealed by Immigration Minister Erica Stanford earlier this year in a report detailing how, in her view, officials had misled her and deliberately altered the project to ensure it didn\u2019t go before Cabinet and risk its years of delays being uncovered. <\/p>\n
After the Public Service Commission launched its review, Stanford refrained from expressing confidence in Blakeley, saying she would wait until the review concluded. <\/p>\n
However, she today changed her tune while acknowledging the review was ongoing. <\/p>\n
\u201cAs it stands, I have confidence in Nick Blakeley. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not downplaying the report, it was very, very serious, but at this stage, I have confidence in him to turn this around to make sure it never happens again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adam Pearse is the Deputy Political Editor and part of the NZ Herald\u2019s Press Gallery team based at Parliament in Wellington. He has worked for NZME since 2018, reporting for the Northern Advocate in Whang\u0101rei and the Herald in Auckland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe ministry would have been aware that in choosing to answer as it did it was certain that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580597,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[74,1970,286023,4282,5159,3937,14903,29136,36192,4527,3938,6963,2949,5504,42,83832,12936,76566,17318,43,13692,28243,24637,286022,3109,14447,3056,3044,58059,13377,312,92144,2552,61,40,38,41,39,6730],"class_list":["post-580596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-after","tag-believe","tag-blakeley","tag-boss","tag-brian","tag-chief","tag-commissioner","tag-committee","tag-deliberately","tag-doesnt","tag-executive","tag-fair","tag-finding","tag-following","tag-headlines","tag-mbie","tag-misleading","tag-misled","tag-mps","tag-news","tag-offer","tag-offered","tag-parliament","tag-proportionate","tag-public","tag-refuses","tag-resign","tag-resignation","tag-roche","tag-sack","tag-says","tag-select","tag-service","tag-to","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-would"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580596","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=580596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}