Dalziel says she did not see memo

By HELEN TUNNAH

Immigration Minister Lianne Dalziel says she never saw a memo written by officials in which one claimed there was a deal to "lie in unison" over an Algerian man suspected of being a terrorist.

Ms Dalziel said neither she, nor anyone in her office, had access to the media log written by Immigration Service media manager Ian Smith.

He still has a job at the service but is facing disciplinary action for the memo, written after he and the service were criticised about information released on Ahmed Zaoui, who was detained last year as a suspected terrorist.

"I was let down badly," Mr Smith wrote in the memo.

"Everybody had agreed to lie in unison but all the others caved in and I was the only one left singing the original song."

A National Party researcher spent months trying to get the memo under the Official Information Act, but was denied it.

The Ombudsman was assured the memo did not exist, even though by the time he became involved the memos sought under the act included "comments from NZIS staff on information contained within media logs".

Mr Smith was able to release three other media logs written about the same time, but said he had no copy of the December 17 media log and could not remember writing anything on it.

The Immigration Service confirmed that the memo, with Mr Smith's comments, existed only after the Herald proved it in July.

An internal inquiry into Mr Smith's claims, and whether there was any collusion to lie either about Mr Zaoui or to the Ombudsman, has cleared all staff.

Mr Smith is being disciplined for writing the remarks, but no one in the service is being censured for misleading the Ombudsman and for failing to meet their obligations under the law to make the memo public.

Ms Dalziel and a spokeswoman for the Minister of Labour, Margaret Wilson, said neither they, nor anyone in their offices, had received the memo when it was sent out last December.

Ms Dalziel said that when she was told by the Herald the memo did exist, she asked staff to find it and then told the Immigration Service to hold an inquiry into why it had not been given to the Ombudsman.

Although Immigration general manager Andrew Lockhart told the Ombudsman the memo did not exist, that was because he had not realised what was being asked for.

Ms Dalziel said Mr Lockhart had not been told by his staff that the Ombudsman had specifically asked for media logs, with Mr Smith's comments.

Mr Lockhart is not commenting on the dispute, but the Department of Labour's chief executive, James Buwalda, who conducted the inquiry, said he did not know if the general manager saw the memo.

Although Mr Lockhart was absent on sick leave when the memo was circulated to 300 people by email, Dr Buwalda said Mr Lockhart was on the mailing list.

He could not say if Mr Lockhart saw or read the memo when he returned to work, or had been asked that as part of the inquiry.

Dr Buwalda said his auditor, who conducted part of the inquiry for him, had interviewed Mr Lockhart about "his knowledge of the matter".

But Dr Buwalda could not say if Mr Lockhart had been asked specifically if he had seen the memo.

The Herald understands Mr Lockhart at one stage had told Mr Smith not to write remarks on media logs.

Dr Buwalda said Mr Lockhart and Ombudsman Mel Smith had been speaking at "cross-purposes" when he gave an assurance the memo did not exist.

"At no time did Mr Lockhart conclude that the Ombudsman was seeking media logs or annotations on those media logs."

Mr Mel Smith confirmed that his auditor did not get a copy of the memo from Mr Lockhart.

Opposition parties have labelled the report a whitewash, and accused officials of having "amnesia in unison".