The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment building in Wellington. Photo / Dom Thomas
Public servants at the centre of the massive cuts announced this week say the Government doesn’t understand the impact of what departments are looking at cutting.
The officials, whom the Herald has agreed not to name so they might discuss sensitive internal matters, described chaotic scenes on Thursday as
A staffer from MBIE described indecision from the ministry, which is looking to find savings of 7.5 per cent as part of a broader public service savings exercise.
MBIE has already shed 188 staff, 111 leaving as part of an earlier exercise in which staff were asked whether they would take voluntary redundancy.
One staffer at the Ministry told the Herald that exercise was unnecessarily chaotic as some staff who put their hands up for redundancy were swiftly told their jobs were too critical and asked to stay.
“Everyone I know who took them up on the scheme had their submissions rejected, they were told ‘your jobs are far too valuable to lose’,” the staffer said.
Some staff resigned anyway, exasperated, costing the ministry decades of experience in areas it did not want to shed jobs.
Staff at the ministry had some inkling news about a restructure was coming this week, but said they struggled to get information out of traditional avenues like the Public Service Association, the public service union, which they felt to be under strain because of the restructuring and job losses taking place across almost every public sector department.
Staff had an inkling something was coming. The MBIE staffer described a number of meeting invites going out earlier this week with “one on one” in the title, at which staff were told that their roles would not exist.
The watershed moment was at about 4pm on Thursday, when a 100-page PDF document dropped that outlined restructuring plans for parts of the ministry, a massive department that employs 6200 staff, according to the most recent data, which is relevant to the last quarter of 2023.
Staff rapidly looked through the document to discover the fate of their departments.
“We have been told for some time that change was coming ... we weren’t told when it was going to be,” the staffer said.
The new Government has been keen to pull into line what it sees as excessive growth in the number of public servants. MBIE employed 3600 staff in the second quarter of 2018, a little over half the number of staff at the end of last year.
MBIE had broadened its earlier voluntary redundancy drive to include regional development unit Kānoa, and teams responsible for labour law, science and innovation, building and resources, trade, and the Māori and Pasifika division. It is also restructuring other parts of the ministry including the Digital, Data and Insights Group, Employment Services Branch, and Te Whakatairanga, a cross-ministry group that touches building regulation, immigration compliance, market integrity and tenancy services.
People working inside the ministry warn the Government does not understand what is being cut. The MBIE staffer described the ministry as a “Frankenstein” of a department, constructed under the last National Government by merging a handful of other departments and ministries together.
It is responsible for maintaining a handful of crucial, ageing computer systems, which underpin crucial parts of the economy, like New Zealand’s groaning migration system. The staffer said that these systems are often more than 20 years old and survive because of workarounds built upon workarounds, and the attention of technology specialists who have decades of experience working with them.
In one case, the staffer described a system so fragile that data needed to be transported from one part of the government to another by hand on a thumb drive just to keep the technological lights on.
An example is the computer system that tracks whether someone’s visa is valid, which frequently breaks. Other systems at other parts of the Government also rely on maintenance from MBIE, in part because of previous Governments’ passion for merging then de-merging various departments.
The staffer said it was not uncommon for MBIE to be called by another department in a flap when an old legacy system went down.
“[They’ll say] you did this 10 years ago, can you come and help. We will run across down with a thumb drive with the information to bring that system back online,” they said, describing the state of systems in the public service as Band-Aids upon Band-Aids.
“There are times when the ministry doesn’t understand how much stuff it touches. Someoene might rely on a piece of code that was written 20 years ago,” they said.
“You have a lot of people who have been in the organisation 20 years. Without them... if someone turns up and says ‘this is broken, why?’ That information all exists in their head,” they said.
MIBE deputy secretary corporate services, finance and enablement Richard Griffiths told the Herald in a statement this week staff at the ministry were told about a “number of change processes” this week.
“This has included a further voluntary redundancy process that will be opened to areas of our organisation that were not part of the initial process.
“Applications are reviewed based on a set of criteria and will be decided based upon several factors, including whether the role holds skills, knowledge, and capabilities that are required in order for MBIE to continue to deliver business outcomes.
“We are now working through the formal change consultation process with our impacted staff. We acknowledge that both formal change and opening voluntary redundancy can present difficulties for our people and we continue to provide them with a range of options to navigate change, as well as to assess whether voluntary redundancy may be suitable for them.
“As this is an active process we are unable to provide further comment on this,” Griffiths said.
“We are now working through the formal change consultation process with our impacted staff. We acknowledge that both formal change and opening voluntary redundancy can present difficulties for our people and we continue to provide them with a range of options to navigate change, as well as to assess whether voluntary redundancy may be suitable for them. As this is an active process we are unable to provide further comment on this,” Griffiths said.
On Thursday, the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI), announced plans to trim its headcount by 383 roles, or 9 per cent. It has grown from 2600 staff in 2018 to 3700 by the end of last year.
An official at the ministry described morale there as “bad” and “angry” as staff were moved from one part of the ministry where they had specialised, to another.
“Three will be seven roles in a team that are going down to three and they all have to express interest if they still want that job, so they are competing with their colleagues and friends,” they said.
“There is confusion,” they said, as staff found out their fates at different times. PSA members had a heads-up earlier because the union had been involved in talks with the ministry. Some non-union staff were completely blindsided.
They said the Government would struggle with its reform agenda because the ministry was shedding competent staff.
“It is going to be a lot harder to produce good advice in the time that they are going to want it,” they said.
When approached for comment, MPI provided a copy of the email director-general Ray Smith sent to staff yesterday.
“As part of the Budget 2024/25 fiscal savings programme, MPI has been asked by the Government to find savings of 7.5 per cent for the financial year starting 1 July.
“The Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and I have been working through credible savings options across our business units. We have been carefully managing costs as part of this work, which includes significantly reducing our contractor and consultant spend and only filling some positions. Beyond this, we have been looking at both the programme and people resource costs of our operations,” the email said, before outlining details of the proposal to reduce headcount.
They said no “frontline” staff would be affected by the change.
Thomas Coughlan is Deputy Political Editor and covers politics from Parliament. He has worked for the Herald since 2021 and has worked in the press gallery since 2018.
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