Conflictofinterest worker named

AUCKLAND: After lengthy delays, Auckland Transport has released more details about a team leader who awarded contracts to a roading company that subcontracted them back to a company owned by his wife.

The issue came to light after The New Zealand Herald raised allegations with AT in late 2015.

The council body has released only limited details of the case and not named the staff member, Erle Bencich, until now.

The Bencich case is the second case to blight AT’s road maintenance department. In an unrelated case in 2016, manager Murray Noone was found guilty in the country’s largest bribery and corruption case and sentenced to five years’ jail. Another manager in the case, Barrie George, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 months’ home detention.

In 2016, it was reported Bencich was involved in awarding contracts to roading contractor Fulton Hogan, which then subcontracted work back to drainage and pipeline inspection company IDI Contracting Ltd. At the time, Mr Bencich’s wife was listed as the sole director of IDI Contracting under her maiden name, Donna Opai.

AT said in 2016 that an internal investigation found no evidence of illegal activity, but it was determined the individual had shown a clear lack of judgement, not following its conflictsofinterest policies, which led to his employment ending on November 10, 2015.

Fulton Hogan chief executive Robert Jones said in late 2015 the company was made aware an AT employee was being investigated for alleged misconduct and, following its own review, found a subcontractor engaged by the company did have links with an AT employee.

He said company employees involved believed the potential conflict of interest was declared within AT, and the company or employees did not derive additional benefits from engaging the contractor.

Fulton Hogan confirmed the subcontractor was IDI Contracting.

In March 2016, the Herald requested a copy of the investigation under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act, which AT refused. The Herald referred the matter to the Ombudsman, who released an ‘‘expanded statement’’ to meet the countervailing public interest. In this statement, Mr Bencich and IDI Contracting were named for the first time.

AT said the investigation found Mr Bencich had been a founding director and shareholder of IDI, had since stood down from that role and ceased to be a shareholder, and IDI had been subcontracted to Fulton Hogan to work on AT contracts.

‘‘Mr Bencich was aware that IDI was working for Fulton Hogan on the West Road Corridor maintenance contract and had been involved in that project in a decisionmaking capacity,’’ the statement said.

AT said it had not identified any other decisionmaking roles by Bencich outside that contract, or found any evidence of illegal activity. The investigation did not establish Mr Bencich had benefited personally from the conflict of interest, it said.

Since the investigation, AT had strengthened its process around conflicts of interest with an online system and set up a whistleblower line for staff and the public to raise any concerns about AT staff.

Erle and Donna Bencich have consistently refused to comment on the case. — NZME