Slip-up in police job vetting

By EUGENE BINGHAM

A manager appointed to police national headquarters lost her job after it was revealed she had a police record which was not detected during pre-employment checks.

Police Minister George Hawkins said a failure of the vetting process meant things that should have been discovered were not.

The woman lasted a month as manager of "employee wellness" in the human resources department before her past caught up with her.

A police officer had seen her appointment advertised in the internal magazine Ten-One and alerted superiors.

"A subsequent investigation highlighted a flaw caused by human error in the vetting process, which has been subsequently addressed," Mr Hawkins said in answers to parliamentary questions from National MP Tony Ryall.

The woman applied for one of five manager positions created in the human resources department last year. She was recommended to the position by a panel and approved by senior staff including the deputy commissioner of resource management, Lyn Provost.

No one expressed any concerns about her at the time.

Mr Hawkins said that although checks were carried out, her record was picked up only when she was "re-checked".

She took a personal grievance against the police and reached a confidential settlement after mediation.

Mr Ryall said the incident highlighted the care police needed in checking potential employees.

Police spokesman Jon Neilson said yesterday that vetting of potential employees was usually thorough.

"At the end of the day, the process did catch up."