Alarm at Immigration staff behaving badly

The embattled Immigration service deals with one case of improper staff behaviour almost every fortnight, newly published numbers reveal.

Immigration Minister Clayton Cosgrove said yesterday that 26 incidents including theft, conflict of interest and misconduct had been recorded within the Immigration Service since January 2007.

Other "behaviours" noted by the department included improper processing of applications, unauthorised release of personal information and improper cash handling.

The Department of Labour said it treated allegations of misconduct "very seriously and investigates them all". It had steadily improved its internal investigations processes in the past four years.

However, in all four theft cases - which involved theft of money - no culprits were identified and only one was referred to police.

The most frequent form of improper behaviour over the past 17 months was system misuse, which the Labour Department said included acts such as inappropriate use of e-mail, misuse of the telephone system, accessing records of individuals without a genuine business reason, and using another employee's computer system identity to access or process applications.

In two cases - one of misconduct and one of conflict of interest - staff resigned before investigations were completed, and three staff members were dismissed for failure to follow correct procedures.

National Party immigration spokesman Lockwood Smith said the number of incidents did not reveal the seriousness of problems within the department.

"To me, what is most troubling about what has been going on is that we keep having revealed ... where managers have been involved in directing staff to do improper things. It shows that such a bad culture has developed within Immigration New Zealand."

The latest revelations have added to a difficult time for the department.

Former Immigration boss Mary Anne Thompson resigned after claims that she had helped family members to obtain residency in New Zealand.

There are four investigations underway involving the department.

Most recently, Auditor-General Kevin Brady was ordered by Prime Minister Helen Clark to conduct an independent inquiry into its operation.

That will run alongside a police inquiry into Ms Thompson's alleged qualifications, the State Services Commission's inquiry into an earlier investigation of apparent favours given to Ms Thompson's relatives, and a Pacific branch review ordered by the Labour Department.