Social Investment Agency boss Andrew Coster is still being paid $1500 a day while being investigated for his role in the Jevon McSkimming scandal.
Coster’s employer, Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche, provided an update on the investigation before, and after, his appearance at the Governance and Administration select committee.
“I think so,” Roche told Newstalk ZB when asked whether Coster was still being paid $1500 a day since going on leave three weeks ago.
That was when Coster’s role in the scandal, when he was Police Commissioner, came to the attention of Roche, in the lead-up to the release of a scathing report from the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA), which heavily criticised how senior police handled allegations about how McSkimming treated a former lover, who was also a junior police staffer.
The woman, known as Ms Z in the IPCA report, has spoken to the Herald today about her experience, including initially being charged with harassment instead of being asked about those allegations.
The Taxpayers’ Union has said most taxpayers would consider it a “disgrace that Coster is being paid $1500 a day ”as he sits waiting for the inevitable sacking as head of the Social Investment Agency”.
Roche told reporters the investigation into Coster was making “really good progress”, but he couldn’t say when it would be completed.
“I’m confident we’ll be able to have a decision in the not-too-distant future. I don’t have an exact date, but I’m really confident that we’re going to get there and remove the uncertainty that everyone has.
“I recognise this has got a high level of public interest. We’ve had to do it properly according to the law, and I’m confident we’ve done that. I want it done as soon as I possibly can.”
Roche also defended deputy Public Service commissioner Heather Baggott, who vetted McSkimming when he was a candidate for Police Commissioner, which he lost to Richard Chambers.
Roche rejected the idea that Baggott failed to ask enough questions of McSkimming.
“I have the highest level of confidence in her,” Roche said.
He said the commission has subsequently strengthened its processes.
Earlier, he told committee members that the McSkimming case was a “wake-up call” that had led to processes being strengthened.
“We continue to work to the best of our ability to ensure we are at international best practice.
“The nature of what people do in their private lives and the impact on their ability to do a public role is a serious issue for us.”
Baggott told the committee the public service code of conduct had been reissued.
The commission can initiate an inquiry if there is any serious breach around integrity, she said, “and we do use that lever when necessary”.
In the committee hearing, Roche was grilled by Labour MP Camilla Belich, who last week wrote to the Auditor-General complaining about the Public Service Commission’s Facebook ads criticising the mega public sector strike last month.
Yesterday the Auditor-General confirmed the commission has asked an external party to carry out a review, but Roche was adamant this did not amount to a black mark on the commission’s political neutrality.
Roche explained the ads were a response to information from unions he described as “not factual, not accurate”, amid challenging bargaining in a “very constrained fiscal environment”.
He acknowledged shortcomings in not letting ministers know the extent of the attack ads.
“We should have kept them more fully informed. We didn’t. Some ministers were caught short.
“I regret ministers were not kept as fully informed under the ‘no surprises’ as they should have been.”
He said it was possible that the attack ads could be repeated in some form, unless the upcoming review concluded that they crossed a line.
“That’s a part of the learning. There’s no point doing it unless you listen to conclusions and adapt in future.”
Asked about downsizing the public service, he said there will be recommendations within 12 months about how it can be done without losing the essence of what it does.
“There’s a few too many agencies, too much duplication. We can maintain the same level of services but with less entities - that’s the hypothesis we are actively exploring.
“Ultimately, it will be for ministers to determine.”
The public service needs to evolve along with digital and artificial intelligence developments, he said.
“We don’t want a fire sale,” he added. The work would instead feed into a strategy over three to five years, as “investment or employment choices have to be made”.
He was concerned that 56% of respondents to the public service survey didn’t think people were hired into the public service on merit.
“There is a concern that people believe that. What they believe will be the truth in their minds. We have to do more to ensure there is never a question on the issue of merit.”
He was also asked about ministers overstepping boundaries, but he said he was not aware of any such incidents.
“I have not seen it, but if you have seen it and refer it to me, I’m very open to looking at it.”
Derek Cheng is a senior journalist who started at the Herald in 2004. He has worked several stints in the press gallery team and is a former deputy political editor.