Horowhenua CEO denies altering emails

The Horowhenua District Council has confirmed it intercepted emails sent from the public to elected councillors but has denied altering their content.

Council management have been under fire since a leaked internal audit uncovered ‘‘extremely high risk’’ email ‘‘blocking’’ processes, which allowed chief executive David Clapperton to read, divert and stop certain emails coming in and going out of the council.

Elected councillors were among those on a black list, as well as activists, former councillors and iwi representatives.

Earlier in the week, Clapperton issued a statement saying redirection practices were in place ‘‘to protect my employees so they can carry out their roles safely, without undue interference, inappropriate criticism and racist slurs,’’ however he did not respond to specific questions about the process.

He has since confirmed that emails from external addresses to elected councillors were also redirected to him.

‘‘Emails have not been blocked, rather they have been quarantined.’’

Clapperton said they were ‘‘quarantined and vetted ... regardless as to whom they were sent.’’

‘‘No content was changed,’’ he said.

‘‘However if offensive material was found in the email it was council practice to seek out a response to the substantive issues, queries or concerns raised without the offensive material being forwarded on.’’

Other questions sent by the Standard remain unanswered, including how many emails were redirected to Clapperton, how long the practice had been undertaken, and if it would be reviewed following the audit.

Requests for the full audit report and related documentation have all been declined.

‘‘There’s privacy issues ... the report is unaccepted by council, it’s flawed and incomplete, it won’t be released,’’ district council communications lead Lacey Wilson said.

However every version of the report was given to auditors KPMG, which is reviewing the documents to ensure a fair assessment.