Super City recruiter challenged after defence CV scandal

Stephen Wilce is an inveterate story-teller, a former military colleague says. Photo / Supplied

The failure of recruiting agency Momentum Consulting to pick up discrepancies in Stephen Wilce's employment record raises questions about its work in hiring key Auckland Super City executives, say Labour and the Public Service Association union.

Mr Wilce resigned as New Zealand's top defence scientist last week after TV3's 60 Minutes reported allegations that he falsified details of his professional and sporting careers.

The Defence Force has initiated its own inquiries into Mr Wilce's background as questions remain over why the alleged falsifications were not picked up either by Momentum, which recruited him for the job five years ago, or the Security Intelligence Service, which was supposed to vet him before granting him top security clearance.

Yesterday, a Defence Force spokesman was unable to say whether the police were now involved.

Prime Minister John Key has received advice from State Services Commissioner Iain Rennie and is expected to act this week.

Momentum, a firm which boasts former National Prime Minister Dame Jenny Shipley as a board member and former National Party president Michelle Boag as a senior executive, has recently been involved in recruiting for Super City jobs.

Last week, managing director Bede Ashby said the company remained "very confident in the quality of our recruitment systems and processes".

Yesterday, PSA national secretary Richard Wagstaff said Momentum "might have confidence in themselves but I don't think anyone else has".

The company's apparent failure to pick up Mr Wilce's alleged fabrications "really does call into question their reputation and capability".

Labour's Auckland issues spokesman, Phil Twyford, said the fact that Mr Wilce was selected by Momentum to head the Defence Technology Agency five years ago "appears to be a blatant breakdown in the most rudimentary reference checking".

"One would hope that Momentum were approaching the job of recruiting executives for the Super City with a bit more diligence. Are they actually checking the references?"

Local Government Minister Rodney Hide said he had "every confidence" in Momentum, which was responsible for the appointment of about 30 "third-tier" positions in the new Super City structure.

All candidates had their references checked and those in senior posts were all police-checked, Mr Hide said.

Meanwhile, it seems one of Mr Wilce's more colourful claims - that as a member of the British bobsleigh team in the 1980s he met the Jamaican team of Cool Runnings fame - has some basis in fact.

Chris McCulloch contacted the Herald to say he knew Mr Wilce during the late 80s.

"I knew him when he was a lieutenant, and although he was not in the British team, he was in the Royal Navy and Royal Marines bobsleigh team (as was I) for a few years.

"He also did practise alongside the Jamaican bobsleigh team of Cool Runnings fame during the late 80s."

Mr McCulloch recalled Mr Wilce as "an inveterate story-teller".

Another ex-colleague, Basil Hanna, said he was "intrigued" Mr Wilce seemed to be talking the same "rubbish" as in 1990 when they worked together in the Canary Islands for the Royal Observatory.