See no evil, hear no evil …

The Secretary of Labour has found that the misleading of the Ombudsman by the Immigration Service was all due to bad systems.

This is quite frankly such an obvious falsity that it goes well beyond even the normal “Yes Minister” standard of whitewash internal inquiries.

The OIA request was absolutely specific. It was for ” … all emails or other correspondence or memoranda circulated within NZIS which comments on the Zaoui case, including comments from NZIS staff on information contained within media logs.

As everyone knows there was a media log on the Zaoui case which had a comment on there about “agreeing to lie in unison”. Yet NZIS told the Ombudsman it did not exist.

The Secretary of Labour’s Report revealed that over 300 people in NZIS received that log and note. And yet not a single one managed to work out that this is what the OIA request covered.

A retarded five year old child could work out that this was the memo being sought under the OIA.

If you believe that this was all a case of bad systems I have a bridge for sale …