Govt orders scrutiny of Davy recruiter

By PAULA OLIVER

The performance of the recruitment company that found John Davy will be closely scrutinised in a Government-ordered report into how it was appointed and what other work it has done.

Wellington-based Millennium People was paid $70,000 to fill four positions for the Maori Television Service - including that of Mr Davy.

The agency, which specialises in Maori recruitment, has since come under heavy fire for its role in the appointment of Mr Davy.

Yesterday, Finance Minister Michael Cullen ordered reports from both the State Services Commission and Treasury into how Millennium People was appointed, what other work it had done for Government agencies and the overall quality of that work.

He requested one of the reports during a meeting with Treasury secretary Alan Bollard yesterday.

A spokeswoman for Mr Cullen told the Herald that there was not a view that any of the other appointments made by Millennium People were necessarily bad appointments. The Maori TV job was an exception.

Millennium People is run by husband and wife team Wayne Ball and Makere Papuni.

Yesterday, their public relations representative did not return calls from the Herald, but in a previous statement the company said its checks into Mr Davy's background were defeated by a sophisticated fraudster.

Millennium People was appointed by MTS after a tender process. It was one of a small group of agencies invited to pitch for the work.

Aside from finding a chief executive for MTS, Millennium People was also hired to fill the positions of chief financial officer, director of programming, and director of sales and marketing.

Labour MP John Tamihere, who chairs Parliament's Maori affairs select committee, said yesterday that he knew of two other appointments where referees had not been checked.

He would not specify what they were, but said one involved Millennium People and was not to do with a Government organisation.

Yesterday a section of Millennium People's website that advertises jobs was not operating.

On Monday it carried ads for jobs at Tainui Group Holdings, Wellink Trust and the Department of Internal Affairs.

Sources in the recruitment industry said Millennium People was known as a company that wanted to become the pre-eminent Maori recruitment firm in the country.

It had done work for Government agencies before, but it was not known how large the firm's non-Government client base was.

Full coverage: Maori TV