Snouts in trough

The Herald on Sunday reveals former National Party president Michelle Boag has picked up the contract to recruit the third tier of executives for the Auckland super city while also being an unpaid campaign adviser for John Banks’ mayoral campaign.

Welcome to the Auckland super city. That Boag and Banks say in the story they can’t see any conflict of interest says it all. Snout wedged so firmly in  trough all perspective has been lost.

How on earth can Boag be expected to recruit what should be a politically independent public service to run the super city when she is also running the election campaign of the Right’s mayoral candidate?

Says Boag:

My networks are such that I had to be very careful about keeping me away from that tender process. I can’t help knowing the people that I know. I have very good relationships with a great number of people. The trouble for me is I’m a well-connected person.

I’m not saying Boag shouldn’t ever work in this town because her networks are so good, nor that she personally interfered in the tender process. But to work for the Banks campaign while recruiting the executives who are going to run the Council’s business? Please.

To say it is not a good look is an under-statement. It is about as damaging to the super city’s democratic legitimacy as the fact that Rodney Hide is going to hand pick the boards of directors of the commercial entities that are going to run the bulk of the Council’s business in secret, instead of letting the newly elected Council appoint them.

Aucklanders could be forgiven for asking whether this is a backdoor way of funding Banks’ campaign. Michelle Boag gets a million-dollar contract from the super city, and in return she works for Banks for free. With Transition Agency chair Mark Ford her former client, Agency board members Rob Fisher and John Waller fellow members of the Eden Park Trust Board, and Jenny Shipley a fellow principal in her recruitment company, this is getting way too cozy.

I want to know if there was an open public tender. I’ll have an Official Information Act request on Mark Ford’s desk shortly asking for the documents relating to the tender process that led to Michelle Boag getting the recruitment contract, including the evaluation criteria.