{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "bskyPostRef": {
    "cid": "bafyreidmanpyzp3jm4of2sce4dyebsm3g2o6r7tzh6bcca2h6isgvw6kf4",
    "uri": "at://did:plc:sl2hrcwo6voaorzsr26d3bo2/app.bsky.feed.post/3morhtdsdpx62"
  },
  "coverImage": {
    "$type": "blob",
    "ref": {
      "$link": "bafkreibgmwzgbg4o25snvvuuty4pzvnlgam3jrrivo4o5olpxbykpakopm"
    },
    "mimeType": "image/jpeg",
    "size": 156043
  },
  "description": "“We have doubts...\"",
  "path": "/senior-bureaucrats-pushed-aside-staff-who-challenged-immigration-it-project-boondoggle/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-06-18T09:10:23.000Z",
  "site": "https://goodoil.news",
  "tags": [
    "Centrist",
    "RNZ",
    "Stuff",
    "Receive our free newsletter here"
  ],
  "textContent": "Summarised by Centrist\n\n**Immigration staff who questioned whether a troubled biometric technology project could succeed were reportedly removed or replaced, while senior officials gave ministers a far rosier account of its progress.**\n\n**An independent review found some employees were replaced because they “raised concerns about the project’s viability”, although the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment has refused to say how many staff were affected.**\n\nThe Biometric Capability Update was eventually scrapped in November after seven years and $33 million in spending without delivering any results, let alone a working system.\n\nA 2023 quality assurance report warned the project would not meet its planned launch date.\n\n“We have doubts as to whether the project will in fact deliver at all, and we question its continuation,” consultants said.\n\nThe report also pointed to the project’s “poor delivery history” and “inability to meet agreed milestones”.\n\nDespite those warnings, MBIE told incoming Immigration Minister Erica Stanford six months later that the project remained in good shape.\n\n“The latest IQA confirmed the project approach was sound and robust, the build is achievable, and the risk management practice is effective,” officials told her.\n\nMBIE has since apologised for not being “fully open and transparent”, admitting the advice was “incorrect and misleading”, while maintaining officials did not intend to mislead the minister.\n\nStanford also said officials had used “creative accounting” to shield the project from Cabinet scrutiny.\n\nPublic Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche said the review suggested people had “manipulated and bent rules” and acted without “the integrity that you would expect”.\n\nRoche said the senior officials who managed the project had since left MBIE, although he did not know whether they had moved into other public sector roles.\n\nNZ First leader Winston Peters said officials responsible should lose their jobs and be “put in prison”, calling the affair “a conspiracy against the people”.\n\nRoche said police involvement was not warranted “at this point” and that investigators should first establish the evidence.\n\nThe Public Service Commission investigation will examine who knew what, the integrity of ministerial advice, procurement and financial management.\n\nIt will also assess whether advice about the separate $336 million Our Future Services visa-processing programme is “accurate and can be relied on”.\n\n**Read more over at** RNZ **and** Stuff\n\nReceive our free newsletter here",
  "title": "Senior bureaucrats pushed aside staff who challenged Immigration IT project boondoggle",
  "updatedAt": "2026-06-21T03:51:02.526Z"
}