Corrections ends EY role
Corrections has terminated a contract with corporate consultancy firm EY (formerly Ernst & Young) to carry out a review of its procedures for dealing with sexual harassment complaints, after EY was forced to launch its own misconduct review.
EY won a contract to carry out the Corrections review, instigated after allegations of inappropriate behaviour were made about several Corrections staff, some of whom held senior positions, a source told Stuff. But last month, Corrections sent EY a “please explain”, after reading on Stuff a senior EY employee was promoted despite a complaint of sexual harassment against him, and after a review of workplace culture had been carried out.
Corrections received a detailed response from EY just over a week later.
Corrections deputy chief executive healthy future Juanita Ryan said in a statement to Stuff that “at that time, we were satisfied with EY’s response to the specific questions we asked”.
“However, we were informed late Tuesday that EY would be commissioning a new independent review of behavioural misconduct complaints within their organisation. In light of this new information, we don’t believe it’s appropriate for us to continue to use EY’s services to conduct our own independent review into sexual harassment while at the same time they will be the subject of their own independent review.”
Ryan said Corrections met with EY yesterday to advise that its ongoing involvement with the review will be terminated.
Late last week Fonterra confirmed to Stuff
that it had contacted EY and requested that “any contractors subject to past or present investigations into misconduct be removed from Fonterra projects”.
The request came after an anonymous complainant raised concerns that “an EY contractor subject to complaints of misconduct may have been present in our premises”. As well as asking for any implicated EY staff to stay away, Fonterra launched its own internal investigation.
On Monday evening, Stuff put questions to EY about Fonterra banning some EY staff from its premises, asking for its response including to concerns raised about an “extraordinary drinking culture” involving EY staff on the Fonterra account. On Tuesday morning, Stuff
was leaked an internal EY email from Oceania talent leader Lauren Stanton in which she said EY would be launching a new review of misconduct complaints over past five years.