Dom Post on Immigration Service
Today’s Dom Post editorial is on the Immigration Service:
The case raises questions about Dr Thompson’s conduct, the conduct of the staff member who ordered that the residency applications be processed, the culture within the Immigration Service, Dr Thompson’s bosses and the adequacy of the inquiry itself.
Put bluntly, it is not acceptable for public servants to use their positions to advance personal or family interests. Nor is it acceptable for senior public servants to leave doubt in the minds of staff about their intentions when personal or family interests are involved.
Dr Thompson should have refused to play any part in her relatives’ bid to come to this country and, when her connections became known, she should have made it explicitly clear to staff that their application was to be treated on its merits just as every other application should be.
By failing to do so she has damaged her reputation and public confidence in the Immigration Service.
To restore it, public service bosses have no choice but to take drastic action. If they do not, service staff will continue to wonder about what a nod or wink from the chief executive means and migrants will continue to suspect that it is not what you know but who you are related to that matters in New Zealand.
It really was an extremely serious failure on judgement to get involved in any way with your own family’s application. And the wider issues of the culture are the bigger concern – how many other times are policies broken to do someone a favour?
May 8th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
This is only the tip of the iceberg. You only have to have worked in Public Service circles for a few years to have seen this type situation lots of time – to varying degrees of significance.
Right/wrong principles are being replaced by a belief the managing the consequence is acceptable. Nepotism and cronyism will continue to increase in concert with this.
May 8th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
By the way….does anyone know the Faculty her PhD is from + its title?
When granted? And, from where?
I think we should be told.
May 8th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
This isn’t ‘policies broken’. It is corruption. The woman should be sacked. Any visas granted to members of her family, other than those who went through the correct procedures, should be revoked and the people concerned deported.
May 8th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
She lacked the integrity to process the application on it’s own merits. Should be sacked immediately!
May 8th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Her PhD is from the LSE, per the original SST article, her MA was in international policy economics from Victoria in Wellington.
For those interested I posted an update on this sorry business much earlier today.
http://adamsmith.wordpress.com/2008/05/08/584/
The Dominion Post and DPF got it right
This paragraph:-
“The case raises questions about Dr Thompson’s conduct, the conduct of the staff member who ordered that the residency applications be processed, the culture within the Immigration Service, Dr Thompson’s bosses and the adequacy of the inquiry itself.”
is key, but will the inquiry address the issues of the bosses and the adequacy of the 2 prior inquiries. There are issues not just over Thompson re her relatives, but hiring practices, conflicts of interest and disciplinary processes as well as the prior Oughton inquiry.
May 8th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
If the boss of bosses, helen davis nee clark is a proven liar and a traitor, whats the problem with one of helens girlfriends being a corrupt liar and rorter and being one of the corrupt suits, that manages in the public service IT SEEMS ROTTEN TO THE CORE its all about image , its their personal firthdom and we pay for it and them.
DONT VOTE THE CORRUPT CHINESECOM LOVING LIARBOUR PARTY,dont risk it , im not nice i cut straight to the chase ,if it smells it could be a liarbour bum.
May 8th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
It really was an extremely serious failure on judgement to get involved in any way with your own family’s application.
NO IT WASN’T …..As Brian SMALLER notes it was CORRUPTION.
May 8th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
adamsmith
I have an Enquiring Mind.
Why should I rely on an SST journo? Do you?
May 8th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Sadly MaryAnn Thompson is the effect not the cause.
Why did the SSC allow a Department dealing specifically with the Pacific Islands to be staffed (at least at the top) with people who have a vested and personal interest possibly in the immigration of their broader families.
Having spent a number of years doing business in and with the islands I would consider such to be fraught with a very serious element of caution.
This may only be the tip of the iceberg and a serious enquiry, which we will not get, should still persued with serious vigour.
May 8th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
I agree with Paulus, if the various press articles are correct it would appear that there was an effort to staff the Pacific Islands section of the Immigration Service with people from a Pacific Islands background.
The nature and extent of the inquiry is critical, which is why I have argued consistently in my posts that the inquiry should not be run by the SSC but by a Judge with powers to compel attendance and depose witnesses
May 8th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
If anyone has read Prof Bob Garretts book The Fish Rots From the Head they will understand the situation. Whilst Bob (who is a regular visitor to NZ) is talking about the private sector the same applies in the public sector.
The tone is set at the top. Culture follows from the top tables example.
Now when you apply the Prime Minister and her fellow Ministers ethical and moral behaviour over the past 9 years it follows that Dr Thompson would see no conflict of interest.
After all the PM pointed out that Taito Phillip Field was merely hepling out a constituent and so Dr Thompson was merely hepling out her family.
Ipso facto this thenm is acceptable behaviour in the culture the PM has created.
Of course the Socialists and their supporters moral compasses all point in a different direction to those who follow the Ten Commandments.
In fact the PM by her own admission does not believe in the Ten Commandments.
So we should understand that Dr Thompson is like any other civil servant following the moral and ethical path of her Leader.
The question is whether that path is consisitent with the majority of the citizens
May 8th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
“Department dealing specifically with the Pacific Islands to be staffed (at least at the top) with people who have a vested and personal interest possibly in the immigration of their broader families. ”
Reading the SST article it seemed that there was an obvious effort to staff the Pacific Access unit with Pasifika staff, to get as many Pasific Island people into the country & that the usual rules didn’t apply to that unit (that was from the whistleblower who was Maori).
Thompson should resign or be sacked. It’s hard to have any confidence in that Department given the apparent corruption going on there.
May 8th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
you lot are so nice and pleasant with your posts, throw the wrench out , shes like a educated tagger (whats the difference with street scum, )paper or physical, she a LIAR/RORTER a helen clark girlfriend,opps following the boss of bosses liar trail a chinacom lover (mass murders, better than hitler,great copiers) EVER did.
May 8th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
James Bumulda was dismissed for percistent management failures and it seems the Mary-Anne Thompson thing is a bit of detritus that was left over from that era. She will be dismissed, of that I am sure and if she is not – there will be blood post the election.
May 8th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
JDF2008 … I agree with you that some of the comments are perhaps ‘over the top’ nevertheless I guess they reflect the real anger building in NZ over corruption in both the Government and the Public Service.
But I would like to know just how you would describe the actions of MAT.
May 8th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
What is Police Commissioner Howard Broad doing with the complaints, alleging criminal actions by all those engaged in the Immigration Service Scandal?
28 04 2008-
Dear Police Commissioner Howard Broad.
I am laying with you a formal complaint of an allegation of breaches of the Crimes Act 1961 that pertain to Section 99 Bribery and Corruption and that you need to apply to those members of the Immigration Department who are the subject of present media reports, including those of statements by Members of Parliament
Ever since the “lie in unison” scandal it has been apparent not all has been well with the NZ Immigration Service. As more is revealed over the preferential treatment given to family members of the NZIS Head, the need for a full inquiry into NZIS grows.
The present scandal has criminal aspects to it that can only be investigated by the police. The actions of the head of the NZIS must be examined. Her support for the application – “A conflict of interest matter” although ill advised, is not necessarily being questioned but rather it is the route that the application followed to arrive on the Senior Officials desk for him to deal with, that is the real issue, along with the manner in which it was expedited to jump the queue……….
The Family of the Head of NZIS was advantaged to the disadvantage of other applicants. The application was late and the quota had been filled. Immigration staff were ordered by a senior official to override normal policies to process late residency……..
May 8th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
adamsmith1922: I have to thank you for your thoughtful, impartial and intelligent analyses of various articles that have appeared on your website on Immigration Services Scandal.
In my view they are too valuable to “Bloom and waste their fragrance in the desert air”.
Your arguments are so forceful, along my own train of thought and so far better expressed, than anything that I could hope to achieve, that with due acknowledgement to your efforts, it lies on the Commissioner’s desk for him to consider as to whether he investigates or decides to sweep it under the carpet.
Apart from a Royal Commission I guess its the next best thing.
You’ll have to forgive my cheek in availing myself of your article. However it is in a very Good cause! Hopefully?
The following is an extract from my complaint to the Commissioner:
I offer you the following from the NZ Herald on May 3 2008. (In italics) – (Comments Plain by Adamsmith1922 – http://adamsmith.wordpress.com/ “The Inquiring Mind, reflection on what interests me, reflecting my personal take on the world). The points he has made are more clearly expressed than I could ever hope to achieve.. I submit them as assistance in backing up my complaint and make it clear that you have a statutory duty to investigate:
Immigration Scandal-Update 4
May 8th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
That Thompson has not resigned immediately speaks volumes for her lack of integrity.
More concerning is how the State Services Commission has presided over a decline in public service standards in the past decade. Thompson, Logan, and others – all CEOs who have behaved unethically (or corruptly) and yet they have held onto their jobs.
SSC has done a very good job of increasing State sector CEO salaries (look at their annual report!), but the SSC has done nothing to encourage a culture of ethics or accountability. It is time for the SSC to be disestablished, and proper Ministerial responsibility asserted over the public service.
May 8th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
And the wider issues of the culture are the bigger concern – how many other times are policies broken to do someone a favour?
Indeed. Everyone Else is Doing It Syndrome.