The Star: March 09, 2017

The Star Latest Christchurch news at www. .kiwi
Thursday March 9 2017 5
Brownlee staffer involved in Treasury report
• By Gabrielle Stuart
GERRY BROWNLEE’S private
secretary wrote to Treasury
about what to include in a report
on the anchor projects, it has
been revealed.
But Mr Brownlee, the Minister
supporting Greater Christchurch
Regeneration, later slammed the
same report, saying it was written
by people who “fluff about
the place pontificating.”
The Treasury Major Projects
Performance Report, which was
released in September, flagged
several concerns about Christchurch
anchor projects, including
the Metro Sports Facility and
Convention Centre.
But emails obtained by The
Star show Mr Brownlee’s private
secretary Mike Shatford wrote
to Treasury staff several times
before the report was released,
asking them to change project
rankings, remove information
and delay the release of the
report.
The changes he requested
appear to have been made. But
when The Star asked Mr Brownlee
for his views on the report after
it was released in September,
he said he had little respect for it.
The first change Mr Shatford,
the former Canterbury Earthquake
Recovery Authority communications
general manager,
requested was an improvement
to the ranking of the Metro
Sports Facility.
At that point Treasury rated it
amber, which means the project
appeared feasible but significant
issues existed.
Mr Shatford said in an email
to Treasury senior adviser Liz
Innes on August 15 that Otakaro
Ltd had provided an update on
the project, which showed the
“project cost uncertainty had
been sorted” and another issue,
which was blanked out in the
copy of the email provided to
The Star, had been resolved.
“Having received this report,
the Minister (and Otakaro)
felt that this project was more
[amber/green] than amber,” he
wrote.
Ms Innes wrote back later that
day to say the ranking had been
changed to amber/green, which
means successful delivery of the
project is probable.
Three days later, on August 18,
he responded to an email about
a Canterbury Public Sector
CHANGES: Gerry
Brownlee’s
private secretary
Mike Shatford
(left) asked
Treasury to
change a report
warning about
potential issues
with the Metro
Sports Facility.
Rebuild “dashboard” prepared
by Treasury and Ministry of
Business, Innovation and Employment,
which made up part of
the major projects performance
report.
“Minister Brownlee is not yet
happy with the indicators being
presented for public release,” he
said in an email to representatives
of each agency.
Later that day, MBIE government
procurement general manager
John Ivil wrote back to Mr
Shatford about the construction
expenditure graph, which was
part of that “dashboard.”
“We could look to remove the
baseline detail and just show
actual and forecast, which is all
in the right direction,” he said.
That information was cut from
the report before it was released.
Later that month, on August
30, Mr Shatford wrote again to
Ms Innes, asking for the public
release of the document to be
deferred.
His email was titled: “Minister
didn’t agree to public reporting
data being released in its current
format – more work to be done.”
The report was not released to
the public until September 21,
three weeks later.
When asked if the involvement
of Mr Brownlee’s office reduced
the credibility of the report, a
spokesman for Treasury said
that was not the case.
He said Treasury made the final
decisions on what to include
in the reports, but Ministers and
their office staff often had more
up-to-date information than
Treasury did, which had to be
considered.
He said the emails were
written after “frequent conversations”
with Mr Brownlee’s office.
A spokeswoman said Mr
Brownlee stood by his comments
about the Treasury reports.
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