The investigation and subsequent reports were completed by Deloitte under a process that was subsequently found to be inadequate and as a consequence NZTA no longer stands by the findings of those reports — which have been removed from NZTA’s website. NZTA has also apologised to the manager who was the subject of the reports.
The target of a scathing New Zealand Transport Agency inquiry into mismanaged IT contracts has rejected its findings as "untrue".
File image. Photo: 123RF
The former NZTA manager also says his former employer has failed to even show him the inquiry's report.
He was accused in a leaked report from an independent investigation of what NZTA said were "extremely serious" and "unacceptable" practices while he headed up a key safety unit.
It was the latest of a series of inquiries since 2015 that have faulted the manager.
NZTA is still refusing to officially release the report that was leaked, saying it can't until it has checked with everyone who is in it.
So far it has been doing that for two months, since the Serious Fraud Office gave it clearance to release the report.
The manager told RNZ the NZTA had not contacted him at all for input, even though it had his number from when he worked there.
"This report is news to me," he said.
"I have not had the opportunity to have input to the report or give any feedback. I would like them to explain to me how they have come to some of these findings, which I believe to be untrue."
The report's leak compounded the problem and amounted to a breach of his privacy by NZTA, he said.
He declined to give a taped interview.
NZTA had said in mid-2019 it would be making the report public, but refused when RNZ first asked for it.
Later, after it referred the case to the SFO in October 2019, the agency cited legal grounds for refusing RNZ's Official Information Act requests.
RNZ appealed to the ombudsman in May this year.
The agency then said it would release the report - that the SFO had allowed it to - but that engagement with stakeholders had "necessitated a delay".
Yesterday, the leak to media organisation Newsroom forced the agency to provide some details of the long-sought-after report to RNZ.
One initiative used an app developed by a close friend of the former manager.
The whole construction industry was told in 2016 to use it.
RNZ has had questions about other apps in with the agency for many months, that have gone unanswered.
Last year, the manager told RNZ that certain NZTA staff were engaged in mud-slinging against him.
NZTA said it had made "wide-ranging changes to rectify the issues".
The manager quit last year to form a transport app company with former senior NZTA IT staff as shareholders.