Matthews ‘should be stood down’

Politicians who approved the appointment of Auditor-General Martin Matthews are calling for an independent inquiry into a fraud case that happened under his watch.

NZ First leader Winston Peters has gone further, saying Matthews should be stood down to allow the scale of the fraud to be investigated.

Matthews was head of the Ministry of Transport when former general manager Joanne Harrison stole $726,000 from the ministry. Harris was sentenced to 43 months’ jail on dishonesty charges in February.

It has been reported that Matthews was repeatedly told of Harrison’s unusual behaviour but did not intervene.

Opposition parties are consulted about the appointment of officers of Parliament such as the AuditorGeneral. Peters was angry that parties were not given more information about Matthews’ handling of the case during the appointment process.

“Ministers knew about this and knew that when action was required to have been taken by an investigative mind, which the Auditor-General surely must have, it wasn’t taken,” he told Radio New Zealand. “And now the Auditor-General himself, I believe, must stand down until a full-scale inquiry gets to the end of this matter.”

Peters said his party would not have approved Matthews’ appointment if it had known about his lack of action to prevent the fraud.

Labour leader Andrew Little said the matter should be investigated by the State Services Commission.

United Future leader Peter Dunne also wanted the commission to step in.

Prime Minister Bill English, in Japan, said calls for Matthews to stand down were “a pretty drastic way of dealing with the issue”. — Isaac Davison