Sir Brian Roche responds to the IPCA findings and outlines the next steps for restoring confidence in police leadership. Video / Herald NOW
Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche called Jevon McSkimming a manipulative, “devious liar” during questioning over what Andrew Coster revealed during his candidacy for chief executive of the Social Investment Agency.
Coster, the former Police Commissioner, has been placed on leave with pay from his current role.
His position hascome under scrutiny after a damning Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) report found that the highest-ranking officers under his watch failed to investigate a woman’s repeated allegations against former Deputy Police Commissioner McSkimming.
“I am incredibly proud of this fantastic organisation, not least because of the outstanding commitment from all staff who work so hard for their communities.”
Former Police Commissioner Andrew Coster (centre) with deputy Jevon McSkimming. Coster was criticised in the recent IPCA report for the handling of sex allegations against McSkimming. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Earlier this week, current Police Commissioner Richard Chambers was scathing of his predecessor, saying he lacked leadership and integrity.
Roche revealed a rough timeline to HeraldNOW’sRyan Bridge this morning on when he became aware of the details in the IPCA’s investigation, published this week.
He said he first saw a “very rough draft” of the report in August, before seeing a “substantially” changed report 10 days ago. Coster was placed on leave after a conversation with Roche on Tuesday.
Roche said no action was taken in August because of the need for natural justice.
“The stakes here are really, really high. If we take a shortcut, this is going to take a lot longer than it needs to. I have no interest in elongating this process longer than necessary.”
“And that resulted in McSkimming being stood down.
“And now that has all become very public.
“McSkimming was a devious liar. He manipulated a story that people bought into. That doesn’t make it acceptable, and I have to work through that as quickly as I can.”
Roche accepted that the commission could have done better.
“We’re a learning organisation. The whole public sector needs to continue to learn, modify and innovate. This is a very good example.
“We live in a really strange world where we can have people with alternative lives.”
Roche said little about the details of Coster’s employment investigation, saying he was worried about committing a “technical foul” that would elongate the process.
“I’m not deliberately being obstructive here,” he told Bridge.
He said he still needed to talk to Coster, as was his obligation as his employer, and carefully consider his response.
“I don’t want it to take any longer than necessary. It is my number one priority. We spend every hour of every day trying to get a speedy but respectful conclusion to this.”
Roche told Hosking that he intended to be fully transparent with a response to the public’s “valid questions”.
Scandal could affect NZ’s high world ranking for anti-corruption
Transparency International chief executive Julie Haggie told Bridge the scandal could affect New Zealand’s ranking as the fourth least corrupt country in the world.
However, she thought the case should be seen not as corruption, but rather as a “cultural integrity problem” of not being able to manage conflicts of interest.
“And then holding information from the minister, which is maybe under the belief that you’re protecting him, but actually, that kind of thing is just part of the systemic problem of trying to protect what you’ve got, what you think you believe in, and then being found out to be not true.
“I see it more as there is clearly misconduct there, but I don’t think it’s outright corruption.”
She would not be seeking a general inquiry into the IPCA’s report, as she believed it was robust and covered a range of agencies.
“At the moment, it looks like a misplaced conflict of interest, which in itself is a big issue for a head of government agency and their advisors.”
- An earlier version of this article incorrectly quoted Roche as speaking about the appointment process for Coster, when he was referring to the appointment process for McSkimming.
