Too much haste in visa processing, says auditor

The Immigration Service got into trouble through a focus on processing as many visas as possible without worrying about quality, Auditor-General Kevin Brady said yesterday.

The latest report in a series into the troubled section of the Labour Department said there were not "widespread integrity and probity issues" but the focus on meeting visa target numbers had created problems.

"This meant that staff who were under pressure to meet quantity targets had incentives to approve visas and permits, rather than decline them," the report said.

"This may have a detrimental effect on the quality of the decisions made and, in some instances, had clearly damaged staffmorale."

It was "especially troubling" that the culture at the service was so bad staff were too afraid to raise concerns about their workplaces and integrity issues.

The report found that problems were worse in the Pacific division than elsewhere in the service.

The division was set up by Mary Anne Thompson in 2005 when she headed the service. She resigned last year after accusations of a conflict of interest in helping overseas family members to gain residency.

It was also alleged she did not have a doctorate from the London School of Economics that many people believed she had when she applied for jobs earlier in her career.

Ms Thompson is facing court action on fraud and dishonesty charges.

Mr Brady said the Pacific division operated in isolation from the rest of the service and "adherence to proper processes was sometimes poor".

This meant visa and service permit decisions were of a "significantly lower quality" than elsewhere in the service.

The problems were known about and the Labour Department did not deal with them effectively or early enough.

The report noted that a new chief executive at the department had reviewed the division in 2008 and was now looking at action.

Over the past few years there have been allegations that ministers and senior civil servants knew about problems, including Ms Thompson's conflict of interest issue.

Mr Brady said he agreed with a previous State Services Commission inquiry that found Ms Thompson had failed to appropriately manage the conflicts and the department was deficient in handling the visa applications and the allegations.

The Auditor-General said the commission had little knowledge of the allegations and ministers had only limited briefings on what was being handled as an employment issue.

Ministers did not do anything wrong, the report said.

It made a number of recommendations about how visa applications should be handled, staff should be hired and about ensuring that the quality of visa approvals was not compromised.

The report said immigration staff were generally conscientious, honest and eager to act in good faith, but needed better systems and processes to support them, it concluded.

The Auditor-General also released a detailed report on Ms Thompson's recruitment and qualifications, covering issues yet to be raised in court.

- NZPA