Immigration officials 'deliberately withheld' information on failed technology upgrade

File photo. Immigration Minister Erica Stanford. Photo: RNZ/Nick Monro

Immigration Minister Erica Stanford has issued a scathing takedown of her ministry, saying officials "deliberately withheld" information from both her and the previous Labour government about a failed technology upgrade.

Appearing before MPs at a Scrutiny Week appearance on Tuesday morning, Stanford said Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche would investigate "integrity concerns" raised by a damning review.

Sitting alongside her, Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) chief executive Nic Blakeley offered an apology to MPs and said he took accountability on behalf on his department.

"I'm committed to learning from this and implementing change."

An independent report - released by Immigration New Zealand (INZ) - identified major flaws in the department's handling of a biometric upgrade project, resulting in a waste of more than $30 million.

The report's author Greg James said INZ launched the project in 2018 without ministerial sign-off, then pivoted to an "off-shelf model" in 2020 without due diligence.

He said officials persisted despite multiple red flags, including delays, missed milestones and significant inadequacies.

"Despite escalating costs, the project continued for several years before ultimately being stopped [in 2025], having delivered no measurable benefits while incurring significant cost overruns."

The report found ministerial reporting throughout had been inconsistent: "at times overly optimistic, and occasionally misrepresenting the true status of the project".

Speaking to MPs, Stanford said the findings were "very serious" and "almost as bad as it gets".

"Firstly, ministers were misled. Secondly, people were moved from the project when they raised concerns. And thirdly, and this is quite serious, creative accounting practices had been undertaken to keep costs of the project below Cabinet's mandated limit," she said.

"Those are extraordinarily serious findings of the report."

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