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As former immigration service boss Mary Anne Thompson promises to co-operate fully with a State Services Commission's (SSC) inquiry into her behaviour, the Pacific division she set up is being investigated over allegations of bribery and corruption.
Last night One News said it had obtained, under the Official Information Act, information showing about 60 people work in the division, and that in three years from 2004, 19 cases of serious offences were proven including theft, bribery and fraud.
From the 19 cases, nine people were fired or resigned. Three were referred to police.
Labour Department chief executive Christopher Blake told TVNZ he took this "very, very seriously".
"It's just not acceptable to have problems like that occurring in what is a very, very important service in the department," he said.
The Pacific division granted residence to three of Ms Thompson's relatives from Kiribati, despite their application forms being filed late and the quota for Kiribati being full at the time.
Ms Thompson's lawyer said she would co-operate fully with a State Services Commission (SSC) inquiry.
But Helen Aikman QC has argued that "political concerns" appear to be influencing authorities in their dealings with her.
The SSC is investigating after Ms Thompson helped her three relatives fill in their residence applications, and an internal inquiry discovered officials were instructed to override policy when they handled them. Dr Thompson was cleared of personal involvement.
A previous investigation, by former justice secretary David Oughton, resulted in Dr Thompson being counselled.
But the SSC is investigating how the applications were approved and how the case was handled.
Authorities are also looking at Ms Thompson's credentials after she was embroiled in a separate issue of whether she held a doctorate when she applied for public service positions earlier in her career.
Since Ms Thompson became prominent in the public service, it has been reported that she holds an MA from Victoria University in Wellington and a doctorate from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
Victoria University has confirmed the qualification but the LSE said it had no record of her receiving a PhD.
Ms Thompson resigned earlier this week, shortly before allegations about her credentials surfaced.
Ms Aikman wrote to SSC chief legal advisor David Shanks yesterday after he requested an immediate response to allegations about Ms Thompson.
Her letter was mistakenly sent to NZPA.
In it, Ms Aikman said Mr Shanks had wanted the response by 5pm and she believed it would "in all likelihood" be referred to police.
She said the "timeframe and approach" were totally unacceptable.
It appeared the SSC had known about allegations against Ms Thompson for four years but nothing was ever said.
She was only told action would be taken against her on Monday, when she resigned.
Despite the saga having been in the public arena, the SSC only yesterday tried to seek comment from Ms Thompson.
"The fact the commission took no action on these allegations for so long, but now wants to deal with the matter with unseemly haste is suggestive of political concerns rather than simply good administration of the public service," the lawyer said.
She said in a press statement that Ms Thompson would cooperate fully with any inquiry.
- NZPA
