Scampi probes cut short say officials

Two more Fisheries Ministry officials have claimed their supervisors wrongly pulled them off investigations into an Auckland company at the centre of corruption claims.

Parliament's primary production select committee is investigating claims that Simunovich fishing company illegally stitched up access to the $100 million scampi industry by colluding with fisheries officials.

On Monday, former investigator Barry Nalder told MPs he was effectively sacked when he was about to expose illegal practices by Simunovich.

Yesterday, another former investigator, John Reid, told the committee that in 1993 he began looking into scampi issues nationwide, but found it difficult to get access to files.

"I was aware from my discussions that Auckland had collected some powerful evidence of offending by Simunovich."

Mr Reid said he was pulled off the case after the ministry's national compliance manager, Dave Wood, said Mr Reid had insufficient resources and other work to complete.

"I totally disagree that I had insufficient time to deal with the scampi issues."

Two or three other companies besides Simunovich would have been at the centre of the aborted inquiry, he said.

A current investigator, Trevor Prescott, said he was asked by his boss to investigate claims of illegal reporting of catches by Simunovich in 1998.

The same official later said he had insufficient evidence to proceed. Mr Prescott told the committee he disagreed with the decision.

The official will appear before the committee today.

During the inquiry MPs have been told of a video showing Simunovich boats illegally packing and recording fish. A number of people have claimed this video has disappeared.

Mr Prescott told MPs he had the video and it proved nothing.

He also said that witnesses he would have relied on worked for Simunovich's rival company, Barine Developments. But he had documentary evidence of misreported fish weights by Simunovich.

The investigation should have gone ahead, Mr Prescott said, as Simunovich had never had the allegations put to it or the chance to rebut them.

Mr Reid said there was widespread "wharf talk" of illegal fishing practices among all companies and it was his job to get to the bottom of it.

On Monday, Mr Nalder told MPs that he was first suspended and then found guilty of incompetence and misconduct and sacked.

He linked the disciplinary action to his investigations into Simunovich, but stopped short of offering any evidence of illegal fishing.

Mr Nalder was at the centre of the corruption claims that launched the inquiry after he aired them on a television programme.

Simunovich has denied the charges and says it will sue.

Mr Nalder believed he was effectively sacked due to a "hidden agenda within the ministry".

He was found guilty of misconduct by the ministry after it said he illegally altered a fishing company's catch returns. He told the committee he was authorised to make the changes and ministry officials had over-reacted.

Mr Reid agreed yesterday that altering the document was serious misconduct.

Simunovich managing director Peter Simunovich has told the committee that the company played "hard but fair" to gain a large chunk of the $100 million fishery.

The ministry admits regions were sometimes inconsistent in how permits were offered, but there was no favouritism.

Most of the claims against Simunovich have been made by Barine Developments and its managing director, Neil Penwarden.

- NZPA