MPI's responsibilities include biosecurity detector dogs. The ministry has also established an internal watchdog unit for staff misconduct allegations. Photo / NZME
MPI's responsibilities include biosecurity detector dogs. The ministry has also established an internal watchdog unit for staff misconduct allegations. Photo / NZME
Seven staff at the Ministry for Primary Industries have been dismissed for offences including inappropriate information access and bad behaviour, the Herald can reveal.
They are among 38 staff subject to upheld misconduct allegations in the past five years, according to figures obtained via an Official Information Act request.
The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) employs about 3600 people, up from around 2500 in 2017.
They include fisheries officers, vets, quarantine staff and scientists, plus policy, legal and IT specialists.
MPI people and capability director Kaye Ryan described the number of incidents classed as “serious misconduct” as extremely low.
The ministry used the low number of serious misconduct cases as grounds not to release anything but the broadest details about the more serious upheld allegations of misconduct.
Official figures released by MPI show seven proved internal charges of internal misconduct from 2017 to 2022, all of which led to dismissal - two each in 2017 and 2020, plus three in 2021.
The Ministry for Primary Industries employs about 3600 staff. Photo / ODT
The upheld allegations of serious misconduct covered four described as “breach of policy”, two of “inappropriate information access” and one of “inappropriate behaviour”.
None of the instances of serious misconduct were referred to police, Ryan said.
Of the 31 remaining instances of misconduct beneath the “serious” threshold, the largest number (11) were for unspecified policy breaches.
The rest were for inappropriate behaviour (7), inappropriate information access (4), inappropriate language (2), “workplace wellbeing” (1), traffic offences (4), plus one employment issue and one upheld allegation relating to procurement.
Actions taken included 10 written warnings, eight letters of expectations, two verbal warnings, one final written warning, one removal of car access, one resignation and one employee was required to undertake further education. In three cases, no further action was taken.
One casual contractor was not re-engaged for further work, one was put on performance management, and two cases led to “advice given to business unit”.
MPI used the small number of upheld claims relative to the total number of employees to invoke the section of the Official Information Act allowing agencies to withhold information to protect people’s privacy.
“Given the small number of upheld breaches and to protect the privacy of all those involved, we will not supply any further details about which part of MPI they worked,” Ryan said.
MPI's responsibilities include biosecurity detector dogs. The ministry has also established an internal watchdog unit for staff misconduct allegations. Photo / file
“It’s vital that we give people confidence to come forward with concerns about alleged misconduct and they can only do so in an environment of trust.”
The official figures show the number of reported claims of misconduct has increased sharply in recent years, from 17 in 2017 to 42 in 2019, reaching 109 in 2021, before dropping away to 71 in 2021 and 27 to June 2022.
Ryan said the establishment of an MPI Professional Standards Unit (PSU) in 2019 and the “speak up” programme the following year, providing an additional channel for staff to report misconduct, both encouraged an increased awareness and confidence among staff to come forward.
