Labour MP Nanaia Mahuta has said she has been "assiduous" in declaring and managing conflicts of interest. Photo / Mike Walen
Labour MP Nanaia Mahuta has said she has been "assiduous" in declaring and managing conflicts of interest. Photo / Mike Walen
A fourth government agency is reviewing a contract awarded to Ka Awatea Services, a consultancy owned by Gannin Ormsby, the husband of Government minister Nanaia Mahuta.
Te Puni Kōkiri (the Ministry for Māori Development) is "looking into" a $28,000 grant made to Ka Awatea Services (KAS) from its"Rangatahi [young people] Suicide Prevention Fund" in April, 2021.
Earlier this month, Public Service Commissioner Peter Hughes also announced a more comprehensive probe of government contracts to Ormsby-family related firms. It will include the Te Puni Kōkiri (TPK) grant, and a series of other contracts, and also establish whether other contracts exist.
The value of contracts awarded to KAS, and a second Ormsby-family-related consultancy, by government agencies in late 2020 and early 2021 total more than $230,000 (excluding GST). Three contracts were for work which was awarded on a sole source basis.
The agencies already conducting internal reviews of the contracts are: the Crown housing agency Kainga Ora, the Department of Conservation, and the Ministry for the Environment, which has completed and released its work.
Mahuta and other Government ministers both welcomed and indeed recently requested Hughes' scrutiny. However, it was first called for by the National Party spokesman for Public Services, Simeon Brown, in August, and pressure had been building for more fulsome scrutiny of the contracts for months.
Mahuta was associate minister for three of the four agencies that awarded contracts to the Ormsby-related firms, although her spokesperson and agency officials have said she has not had purview over the areas of work covered in the family-related contracts.
Mahuta has said she's been "assiduous" in declaring and managing conflicts of interest "in accordance with the Cabinet Manual" and that she had "no say in approving at contract level".
The Public Service Commission's (PSC) jurisdiction is over the public service and does not extend to ministers.
Contracts and grants awarded to firms associated with Nanaia Mahuta's husband Gannin Ormsby are under review
Chris Hipkins, Minister for Public Services, said the Government's concern is at the departmental level.
National's Brown said the fact that all contracts awarded to Mahuta's family members "are under internal review is further reason why the Public Service Commission must undertake a thorough review."
Of particular concern in the case of the TPK grant, he said, was the proposal that Mahuta "would provide paid work on this contract."
The Ka Awatea application document outlined a multi-day project comprised of meetings, workshops and excursions for Māori young people, and proposed a segment that included four panellists to critique participants' ideas for businesses and other ventures.
Mahuta was listed as one of the proposed panellists, anticipated to be paid $2000 each as koha for their time and to cover travel and accommodation expenses (the project was co-funded, but the application proposed paying the panelists from TPK funding).
Asked about the plan, a spokesperson for Mahuta said that the Minister was not invited to the event and did not participate.
Mahuta was the ministry's Associate Minister at the time. Associate ministers have narrowly defined responsibilities and oversight of the Suicide Prevention Fund rested with Jackson, his office said.
The grant application also disclosed the family relationship between Gannin, Tamoko and Waimirirangi Ormsby and minister Mahuta as a conflict of interest. It was released to the Herald in June by Gannin Ormsby.
Ormsby also said the project was successful and overseen by his nephew, Tamoko Waimirirangi Ormsby, both of whom are directors of Ka Awatea Services.
Earlier this month, the Ministry for the Environment released a review of the process by which it awarded some $90,000 (excluding GST) of contracts to KAS and the consultancy Kawai Catalyst, owned by Tamoko and Waimirirangi Ormsby.
The report found no political involvement by ministers, including Nanaia Mahuta; however, the review enumerated a litany of deficiencies in the process, at the ministry level, by which the contracts were awarded.
