Fire and Emergency New Zealand’s use of consultants was critically examined – and rightly so – in an article in The Post.
The authors were Dr Charlie Mitchel, a research fellow, and Dr Geoff Plimmer, an associate professor, both from the School of Management at Victoria University of Wellington.
They said:
It’s concerning when a public agency gives such confusing and contradictory answers to Parliament that a select committee launches a special inquiry.
It’s more concerning when the agency in question, Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz), responded by hiring communications consultants to answer what should be a basic question: how old are its fire engines?
Worse, Fenz said the issue was the “manual work” required to compile the information – something it said its IT system couldn’t easily produce.
That might have justified bringing in technical expertise. Instead, Fenz hired “integrated communications and marketing” firm Anthem.
These details emerged last week, on the opening day of a select committee inquiry into Fenz’s fleet management.
Fenz appears to have breached three basic conditions of public trust – that it knows what it’s doing, that it’s straight with Parliament, and that it uses public money carefully.
The Post had previously highlighted FENZ’s use of consultants when it reported the concerns of National MP for Ōtaki Tim Costley.
The Post explained that the Governance and Administration Select Committee was looking into FENZ fleet issues, after the organisation’s last two annual reviews ‒ and a special hearing ‒ left unanswered questions about the state of its kit.
FENZ’s top brass fronted Select Committee on Wednesday morning with a report it had compiled and sent to MPs on Tuesday night.
Questioned by Costley, FENZ chief executive Kerry Gregory confirmed the agency had contracted independent consultants to help it “bring all the material together”.
Gregory wasn’t able to say how much this was costing on the spot but said it was necessary.
“Don’t underestimate the manual work that went into compiling this for you.”
Speaking to The Post after the hearing, Costley said the information MPs had asked for was basic.
“Its information I would have expected FENZ to have had on hand on any given day; that they would be able to look up and see exactly how many vehicles of each type they had, the age of them, the location of them and when they are due for replacement.
“I understand there may be some extra work to present that or format that in a way that they think is best presented to the select committee but all I had asked for was a really simple spreadsheet.”
So FENZ had struggled with Costley’s “basic” questions.
The writer of this article emailed him to ask:
Can you give me an example of the sorts of questions that FENZ could not answer?
PoO was hoping Costley would deliver the goods.
He didn’t. The reply bore the name of Brigette Norden, whose job title was not included.
Thank you for getting in contact and emailing about the FENZ inquiry. Tim is receiving hundreds of emails regarding the FENZ inquiry so has asked me to respond on his behalf.
The questions FENZ have been struggling to answer are mainly around how much of their new fleet is in operation. Tim has put recordings of his Select Committee meetings on his socials and you can view them here https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1BYLDGYWP5/
The reply included three specific links to Costley doing his thing at the inquiry.
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1NGeb22d79/
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1X9j4hDnJZ/
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/16xtcj6xzZ/
This should help answer your question. Please let me know if you need anything else.
Kind regards,
Brigette Norden
PoO wondered if Brigette Norden was Costley’s Personal Assistant, Office Manager, or some such.
We turned to Google which suggested we might be referring to a Brigette Norden who:
… frequently participates in local public forums and social media discussions regarding the Horowhenua district. She has been publicly mentioned by local Otaki Member of Parliament Tim Costley, who noted catching up with her during visits to Levin. She also frequently engages with updates regarding the Horowhenua Chronicle and local community safety matters.
PoO can’t complain the information we sought was not supplied. And yes, we could have sent a follow-up email.
But we wonder how media-savvy Costley might be if he expects the media to sift through his videos and transcribe the results to learn what he asked and what he was told.
Journalists are under demanding time pressures to provide enough reports to earn their keep and keep their editors happy.
Would they stick with the Costley-FENZ story – or put it into the “maybe some other time” tray while they focused on something else?
We took the second option.
Bob Edlin is a veteran journalist and editor for the Point of Order blog HERE. - where this article was sourced.
It’s more concerning when the agency in question, Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz), responded by hiring communications consultants to answer what should be a basic question: how old are its fire engines?
Worse, Fenz said the issue was the “manual work” required to compile the information – something it said its IT system couldn’t easily produce.
That might have justified bringing in technical expertise. Instead, Fenz hired “integrated communications and marketing” firm Anthem.
These details emerged last week, on the opening day of a select committee inquiry into Fenz’s fleet management.
Fenz appears to have breached three basic conditions of public trust – that it knows what it’s doing, that it’s straight with Parliament, and that it uses public money carefully.
The Post had previously highlighted FENZ’s use of consultants when it reported the concerns of National MP for Ōtaki Tim Costley.
The Post explained that the Governance and Administration Select Committee was looking into FENZ fleet issues, after the organisation’s last two annual reviews ‒ and a special hearing ‒ left unanswered questions about the state of its kit.
FENZ’s top brass fronted Select Committee on Wednesday morning with a report it had compiled and sent to MPs on Tuesday night.
Questioned by Costley, FENZ chief executive Kerry Gregory confirmed the agency had contracted independent consultants to help it “bring all the material together”.
Gregory wasn’t able to say how much this was costing on the spot but said it was necessary.
“Don’t underestimate the manual work that went into compiling this for you.”
Speaking to The Post after the hearing, Costley said the information MPs had asked for was basic.
“Its information I would have expected FENZ to have had on hand on any given day; that they would be able to look up and see exactly how many vehicles of each type they had, the age of them, the location of them and when they are due for replacement.
“I understand there may be some extra work to present that or format that in a way that they think is best presented to the select committee but all I had asked for was a really simple spreadsheet.”
So FENZ had struggled with Costley’s “basic” questions.
The writer of this article emailed him to ask:
Can you give me an example of the sorts of questions that FENZ could not answer?
PoO was hoping Costley would deliver the goods.
He didn’t. The reply bore the name of Brigette Norden, whose job title was not included.
Thank you for getting in contact and emailing about the FENZ inquiry. Tim is receiving hundreds of emails regarding the FENZ inquiry so has asked me to respond on his behalf.
The questions FENZ have been struggling to answer are mainly around how much of their new fleet is in operation. Tim has put recordings of his Select Committee meetings on his socials and you can view them here https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1BYLDGYWP5/
The reply included three specific links to Costley doing his thing at the inquiry.
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1NGeb22d79/
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1X9j4hDnJZ/
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/16xtcj6xzZ/
This should help answer your question. Please let me know if you need anything else.
Kind regards,
Brigette Norden
PoO wondered if Brigette Norden was Costley’s Personal Assistant, Office Manager, or some such.
We turned to Google which suggested we might be referring to a Brigette Norden who:
… frequently participates in local public forums and social media discussions regarding the Horowhenua district. She has been publicly mentioned by local Otaki Member of Parliament Tim Costley, who noted catching up with her during visits to Levin. She also frequently engages with updates regarding the Horowhenua Chronicle and local community safety matters.
PoO can’t complain the information we sought was not supplied. And yes, we could have sent a follow-up email.
But we wonder how media-savvy Costley might be if he expects the media to sift through his videos and transcribe the results to learn what he asked and what he was told.
Journalists are under demanding time pressures to provide enough reports to earn their keep and keep their editors happy.
Would they stick with the Costley-FENZ story – or put it into the “maybe some other time” tray while they focused on something else?
We took the second option.
Bob Edlin is a veteran journalist and editor for the Point of Order blog HERE. - where this article was sourced.
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