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The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Mfat) spent $43,000 sending three staff on a trip to Rome and the UK for a conference hosted by an Information Technology company.
While abroad, the trio enjoyed some complimentary food and transport provided by French communications giant Orange Business, whichwas involved in a tender process alongside Kiwi companies at the time.
The three ministry staff including its chief information officer attended a sponsored conference hosted by Orange in Rome from June 6 to 8 last year.
Details obtained by the Herald via the Official Information Act show the ministry spent about $5.5m with Orange from January to November last year for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) services.
The ministry said it spent $43,000 sending the chief information officer and two other staff on the 13-day trip, of which 10 were business days, according to its response. The chief information officer was a guest speaker at the Rome conference.
While overseas, the trio visited ministry posts and spent some time in the United Kingdom, where they visited the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and attended two workshops at the Orange offices in London.
“The majority of costs associated with the trip were paid by the ministry, but some incidentals, such as conference catering, occasional meals and taxi fares, were supplied by the partner vendor,” the ministry wrote in its response to the Herald.
A ministry spokeswoman said its gift policy stipulates that anything over $100 needs to be declared, but the incidentals did not meet that threshold.
Most of the trio’s travel was premium economy - including the Sydney to Dubai and London to Sydney legs, the spokeswoman said.
Internal flights around Europe were economy and the Wellington-Sydney leg was business class, booked as part of a Qantas-Emirates co-share flight package, the ministry said in a statement.
“Mfat asked for this leg to be changed to economy, but Emirates could not make the change.”
It is understood the trip led to some raised eyebrows within the ministry and the New Zealand ICT community.
Delegates at the Orange Business Hello!World2023 conference in Rome in June last year.
On April 28 last year, about a month before the trip, the ministry went to market with a request for information (RFI), a market research exercise sometimes undertaken ahead of a full request for proposal (RFP) tender process. The RFI was titled “Cyber Security Operations Centre”.
In a note on the government tender website, the ministry said the process was for information only, would not be used to select any suppliers and was for “market research” only.
A ministry spokeswoman said Orange Business was among 14 vendors who responded to the RFI.
The Herald understands at least one large New Zealand ICT firm also responded.
“A decision was later made to place this work on hold indefinitely,” the spokeswoman said.
George Block is an Auckland-based reporter with a focus on police, the courts, prisons and defence. He joined the Herald in 2022 and has previously worked at Stuff in Auckland and the Otago Daily Times in Dunedin.
