Roche breaks own promise for transparency on Blakeley resignation

After promising to answer questions by the end of Monday, Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche has still not addressed basic questions about his controversial decision to keep the Parliamentary liar Nic Blakeley as the boss at MBIE.

Taxpayers’ Union Executive Director Jordan Williams said, “In an email on Friday Sir Brian committed to answering questions by the end of Monday. His office even asked us to communicate this commitment to transparency and publish it as an update on our website.

"We did so. But the deadline has come and gone.

"Roche's answers are bit like Blakeley's accountability: missing in action.

"The decision to keep Blakeley in his job has astounded political commentators with people rightly asking whether something is fishy. It is only proper for the Taxpayers' Union to ask for the timeline of events.

"This is now turning into a story about Sir Brian's judgement as much as Blakeley's fibs. And Sir Brian going to ground is not helping.

On Friday the Taxpayers’ Union asked Sir Brian to provide:

• the date and time at which Blakeley's resignation was offered;
• the date and time at which Sir Brian first became aware of the offer;
• the date and time at which Sir Brian decided not to accept it; and
• the date and time that decision was communicated to Mr Blakeley.

Shortly afterwards, Sir Brian emailed that he would respond 'on Monday'.

The letter to Sir Brian is available at https://www.taxpayers.org.nz/ltr_ssc_blakeley_deal.