A crisis of accountability with ACIL and Ports of Auckland

The Mari­time Uni­on says there is a crisis in account­ab­il­ity with Auck­land assets such as Ports of Auck­land.

Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and Nation­al Pres­id­ent Garry Parsloe says ACIL CEO Gary Swift was effect­ively bury­ing inform­a­tion about the Ports of Auck­land dis­pute and giv­ing Auck­land coun­cil­lors the brush off.

Labour MP Dari­en Fenton today joined with Auck­land coun­cil­lors in express­ing her ser­i­ous con­cern that Auck­land rate­pay­ers are not being giv­en the full facts about the amount of pub­lic money spent by Coun­cil com­pan­ies dur­ing the Ports of Auck­land dis­pute on con­sult­ants, advert­ising, pub­lic rela­tions and sim­il­ar pay­outs.

Sev­er­al Auck­land coun­cil­lors yes­ter­day expressed their ser­i­ous con­cern and were openly crit­ic­al about the situ­ation to ACIL CEO Gary Swift at a meet­ing of Auck­land Coun­cil’s Per­form­ance and Account­ab­il­ity Com­mit­tee.

This has now res­ul­ted in one Coun­cil­lor seek­ing inform­a­tion from ACIL with an offi­cial inform­a­tion request under LGOMIA.

Des­pite dir­ect involve­ment in the dis­pute, revealed in an email to POAL com­mu­nic­a­tions staff, Mr Swift told coun­cil­lors at yes­ter­day’s meet­ing he did not have any know­ledge of the costs of the dis­pute and such know­ledge was inap­pro­pri­ate at a gov­ernance level.

Mr Parsloe says Mr Swift can­’t be involved in the dis­pute when he feels like it, and then not involved the next day.

He says the Ports of Auck­land was not the prop­erty of the POAL man­age­ment or board, or the ACIL man­age­ment or board, but the prop­erty of Auck­landers.

“These man­agers and board mem­bers are respons­ible and account­able to the own­ers – the people of Auck­land – through their elec­ted rep­res­ent­at­ives, who have a right to straight answers and some basic respect.”

While the ACIL State­ment of Intent spe­cific­ally makes it clear they are “account­able for the prudent gov­ernance and man­age­ment” of the invest­ments they hold on behalf of the Auck­land Coun­cil, there appears to be no mech­an­ism to test that account­ab­il­ity in a crisis situ­ation, says Mr Parsloe.

The Mari­time Uni­on sup­ports Ms Fenton’s private mem­bers bill, the Loc­al Gov­ern­ment (Coun­cil Con­trolled Organ­isa­tion) Amend­ment Bill, due to have its first read­ing next week.

The bill would open ports to offi­cial inform­a­tion requests they are cur­rently excluded from.