Archive for February 2012
In today’s herald there is an article Watchdog in crisis, MPs told and yesterdays article Bulging backlog creating a ‘crisis’ in Office of the Ombudsman
6 years ago I asked a simple question ” why does this private law enforcement authority not exist ”
MAF had failed to check the existence of the animal welfare institute of New Zealand , which was given statutory powers of search and seizure and the ability to prosecute the public.The person completing the application had written the bill for the legislation and had advised on it. He then ran an SPCA type organization using council resources, staff and infrastructure to derive an income for himself.( banked into an account with a pseudonym , an account only he had access to )
I did not mean to be a whistle blower but because I proved categorically that the organization did not exist and was nothing more than a fiction ,I was hauled through the courts .
MAF have done nothing but cover their backs and those involved in 1999 are the same persons who now control the release of information and have gone all out to protect themselves withholding information , doing limited audits which had parameters set so as to avoid the fraud .
When MAF had the results of the audit, the perpetrator wrote to them and demanded that this information was withheld from me , this information proved that I had not defamed any one . It took the ombudsmen 18 months to release these papers , during which time I battled the courts in an attempt to get justice. A time during which my Family was physically torn apart.
I complained to the state services commission about MAF’s breach of code of conduct but MAF provide them with a version of events again collaborating with the perpetrator, this resulted in the state services commission choosing not to investigate.
I have now obtained the report which was provided to the SSC and found the following statement proving that MAF have also influenced other government departments and ministers offices so as to control information ” Consequently, all correspondence from GH directly to the Minister, and all that referred to the Minister from the PM and other Ministers get transferred to MAF to manage and respond too.”
How convenient .How nontransparent.
While MAF was not able to investigate it does appear to have clairvoyant tendencies because in September 2011 MAF knew about bankruptcy action which was not commenced until December . No evidence of any bankruptcy proceedings was available anywhere prior to mid December , proving that MAF is still collaborating with the perpetrator the very person who made a false application for approved status in 1999. see anticorruption.co.nz.
The ombudsmen office is the only form of accountability we have , Government departments know the ombudsmen to be ineffective ( because they are so bogged down ) and Long serving government officials know the system, they are trusted and some abuse their trust and when they face retirement they have to go to all lengths to cover the errors or transgressions of their past .
I suspect that my case, which is totally provable, is the tip of the ice berg of corruption in New Zealand but no one seems to be interested.
As an investigator I use the equation Corruption = monopoly+ discretion- Accountability .
Without an effective ombudsmen office there is no accountability .
We silence those who speak up with court action in a civil jurisdiction which denies justice… you need only look up Law system a ‘laughing stock’ Anthony Molly QC has been speaking out on this for years. I fully support him.
IF government departments were made more accountable and transparent and dealt with issues of integrity by means other than covering them up, the work load of the ombudsmen would be reduced and we may just win the battle against corruption