Gerry Brownlee was aware of the issue, he described it as a hiccup in the reconciliation of numbers. Photo / NZME
Gerry Brownlee was aware of the issue, he described it as a hiccup in the reconciliation of numbers. Photo / NZME
The Earthquake Commission is downplaying an administration discrepancy which saw it fail to keep track of more than 2000 "remedial requests" - calls from claimants who have had work done that they were not satisfied with.
An internal review found that the Earthquake Commission (EQC) had about 2200 more remedial requests in its work streams than were being captured in its reporting, General Manager Shared Service Gillian Dudgeon said.
The issue meant that the EQC had "not correctly interpreted some of the data held across the Fletcher EQR and EQC information systems. This has meant that our reporting had not fully captured the work needed to resolve remedial requests," she said in an emailed response to calls from the Herald.
But ultimately no customer remedial requests had been misplaced from the information systems, she said.
"There has also been no slow down in the rate at which we are resolving remedial requests because of the reporting issue."
Earthquake Minister Gerry Brownlee was aware of the issue which he described as a hiccup in the reconciliation of numbers between EQC and Fletcher EQR.
"Probably it's just the fact that everything has been going at such a pace the flow of information back into EQC probably hasn't been as fast as it should be," he said.
"I would be confident in saying there are not lost claims here, or unknown claims - and claims is the wrong word, it's call backs on claims that have already been done."
Brownlee said all the structural work done under the repair scheme was covered for 10 years under the Building Act and the calls for remedial repairs could range from cosmetic work and sticky locks to concerns about foundations.
"There were a whole lot of people who have been frightened by some of the quite wild claims out there about foundation or pile repairs so people might ring up and say 'have another look at mine.' It's just a normal part of any building job."
Earthquake Minister Gerry Brownlee. Photo / Greg Bowker
Remedial repairs have been given a lower priority than rebuild claims because of the need to get people back into homes, Brownlee said.
Labour's Canterbury spokesperson, Megan Woods, said it was the latest in a long list of errors from EQC.
"Six years on from the first quake, the fact that there are now thousands more fix up requests than EQC has told us is really worrying.
"This is the kind of thing that really saps people's confidence in EQC and the Government," she said.
"This is why we need an independent inquiry into EQC."
EQC's annual report for 2015 states about 8-10 per cent of the homes repaired within the CHRP had required some aspect to be remedied later.
Approximately 756 remedial repairs were completed during the year to mid 2015. And as at 30 June 2015, an estimated 2,923 remedial repairs had been identified requiring further investigation.
There has also been no slow down in the rate at which we are resolving remedial requests because of the reporting issue.
It was never expected that all remedial requests would be resolved by the end of this year, Dudgeon said.
"Over the next six to eight weeks we will be calling about 3200 customers whose remedial request we will not be able to resolve by managed repair before December 2016. We had always planned to call customers in this situation. As a result of what we now know, the calling campaign will include more customers," she said.
"We will also write to, or call, those customers who are scheduled to have a managed repair and have not heard from us in a while to update them on their status."
