Greater Christchurch Regeneration Minister Megan Woods wants answers from state insurer Southern Response about its use of private investigators.
The minister is seeking a “please explain” from Southern Response after it paid Thompson & Clark Investigations more than $2,000, NZ Herald reports. Thompson & Clark reportedly invoiced the insurer for reviewing a response to an Official Information Act (OIA) request from the Labour Party research unit on its use of the private investigation firm.
Paying Thompson & Clark to review an OIA response “doesn’t sit right,” Woods told the publication. She noted she’d be following up with Southern Response.
Meanwhile, National MP Gerry Brownlee was quoted as saying someone needed to explain the $2,070 charge because he had no knowledge of it as quake recovery minister at the time.
“That seems very odd,” he noted.
On December 18, the State Service Commission (SSC) published its inquiry into the use of external security consultants by government agencies. It found Southern Response had breached the State Services code of conduct when it hired Thompson & Clark to engage a contractor to secretly attend and record meetings with Christchurch earthquake insurance claimants.
Now, NZ Herald has pointed to the distinction made by the SSC report between Southern Response hiring security consultants to protect staff safety, and secretly infiltrating claimants’ legal meetings for the purposes of protecting the organisation’s brand.
“The allegation that they moved to brand protection is completely unsubstantiated and something that, frankly, the State Services Commissioner should be looking at himself for if he believes that’s the case. It would be a total failure of his department if that were the case and they hadn’t picked it up,” Brownlee noted.
“The report shows legitimate activity morphed into secret surveillance of claimants’ private meetings to discuss legal strategy with their legal team. This was about protecting Southern Response’s corporate reputation, not their staff. That is wrong, plain and simple,” Woods added.
Southern Response told NZ Herald it needed some time to respond to specific questions, including why Thompson & Clark was asked to review the OIA response and what its advice was.
