Newly released government papers reveal a top civil servant criticised the Local Government Commission's draft Hawke's Bay amalgamation proposal because it lacked analysis and was almost identical to a similar proposal for Northland.
In a February letter to the commission, Colin MacDonald, who is the Secretary for Local Government and also the chief executive for the Department of Internal Affairs, encouraged the commission to "further develop the evidence and analysis" in its amalgamation proposals for the two regions.
"The proposals should give the communities affected confidence that significant decisions about their future representation are being made on the basis of robust information and analysis," Mr MacDonald wrote.
The letter was released this month under the Official Information Act to anti-amalgamation group Local Democracy Coalition.
It was written three months after the commission released its draft amalgamation proposals for Hawke's Bay and Northland late last year.