NZTA lost confidence of Twyford

The chair of the NZ Transport Agency has said it ‘‘could have and should have’’ done better for Transport Minister Phil Twyford after it mishandled an unsolicited consortium bid from the NZ Super Fund to build Auckland’s light rail project.

Sir Brian Roche said the agency let Twyford down through its handling of the process.

Things got so bad that Twyford eventually gave the job of examining the bid to the Ministry of Transport, taking it out of NZTA’s hands.

Roche, who joined the board after the fiasco, said the agency ‘‘dropped the ball,’’ and lost the confidence of the minister.

The remarks come after leaks published by Stuff showed the tortured process NZTA went through after receiving an unsolicited bid to build the light rail from the NZ Super Fund.

The agency damned the project, with its former interim chair calling it ‘‘vague’’ and saying it was initially presented on just six power point slides. Correspondence leaked to Stuff showed NZTA thought the proposal was so weak it should have been rejected out of hand. Instead, Twyford pushed on, eventually allowing the Super Fund bid to be put up against NZTA’s own plan.

Roche said NZTA should have been more accommodating of the bid. The agency had a culture of doing things on its own and therefore had a prejudice against a proposal from an outside organisation. Twyford agreed the agency had dropped the ball. ‘‘They were directed to run a market sounding process and assess the NZ Infra bid and other options for funding and financing, much like the current process,’’ Twyford said.

‘‘Because of this failure, I then directed the Ministry of Transport and Treasury to provide further advice on the NZ Infra proposal who advised it was worth considering further.’’

Twyford said NZTA had since stepped up its game.

Back in May, NZTA was asked to work on developing a process to assess other bids to build light rail. ‘‘My clear view is the agency dropped the ball,’’ Roche said.

‘‘The agency was asked to do something and it failed,’’ he said.

The process has now been taken out of NZTA’s hands.

It is working on its own bid, which the Ministry of Transport will assess alongside the bid from the Super Fund.

Roche said this occurred after Twyford lost confidence in NZTA’s ability to manage an outside proposal.

Twyford said that by the end of last year it was clear NZTA had not been able to do what Cabinet had asked it to. ‘‘Cabinet directed NZTA in May 2018 to lead the development of light rail and work with Treasury and the Ministry of Transport to assess all potential proposals – it became clear at the end of 2018 that did not happen,’’ Twyford said.