1
00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:01,960
Speaker 1: We have yet another damning report into the state of

2
00:00:01,960 --> 00:00:06,359
Speaker 1: Wellington Water today spells out alleged theft by one individual,

3
00:00:06,480 --> 00:00:10,440
Speaker 1: poor value for money from contractors, systemic structure issues, lack

4
00:00:10,480 --> 00:00:13,080
Speaker 1: of oversight for spending. In fact, it says that low

5
00:00:13,119 --> 00:00:16,280
Speaker 1: and authile and rate payers have foked out three times

6
00:00:16,720 --> 00:00:20,240
Speaker 1: what they should have for pipes. Nick Leggett is share

7
00:00:20,280 --> 00:00:24,200
Speaker 1: of Wellington Water. He's with me, Hinik, you've offered to

8
00:00:24,239 --> 00:00:27,120
Speaker 1: resign apparently because of this report. Has anyone accepted that.

9
00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:30,520
Speaker 2: I haven't offered to resign. I've said I've certainly listen

10
00:00:30,640 --> 00:00:34,760
Speaker 2: to our shareholders. I mean, this is a damning report

11
00:00:34,880 --> 00:00:40,919
Speaker 2: and Wellington Water has come under criticism that I can

12
00:00:40,960 --> 00:00:45,000
Speaker 2: only say is justified and people should be appalled. What

13
00:00:45,040 --> 00:00:47,519
Speaker 2: we've tried to do is lift a lid on that.

14
00:00:47,800 --> 00:00:51,640
Speaker 2: Be honest and upfront. There wasn't the right competitive tension

15
00:00:51,680 --> 00:00:55,440
Speaker 2: to get the best value for ratepayers. The internal systems

16
00:00:55,480 --> 00:00:58,960
Speaker 2: for the organization that the financial checks, those kind of

17
00:00:59,320 --> 00:01:03,760
Speaker 2: processes appalling. And it's been a continuum since the report

18
00:01:03,840 --> 00:01:06,320
Speaker 2: last year. Really that where there was a big budget

19
00:01:06,319 --> 00:01:07,679
Speaker 2: eerror and.

20
00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:09,680
Speaker 1: Did you need a report to tell you all this?

21
00:01:09,720 --> 00:01:12,319
Speaker 1: Because it's in the Deloitte report. The summary, it says

22
00:01:12,319 --> 00:01:15,399
Speaker 1: that every employee interviewed said that they saw big holes

23
00:01:15,400 --> 00:01:15,959
Speaker 1: in the system.

24
00:01:17,080 --> 00:01:19,840
Speaker 2: That's right. And so what happened was when our new

25
00:01:19,920 --> 00:01:25,440
Speaker 2: chief executive arrived in about September last year, employees came forward.

26
00:01:25,440 --> 00:01:29,520
Speaker 2: They came forward to me. We ran a whistleblower type approach.

27
00:01:29,880 --> 00:01:34,280
Speaker 2: People came forward, some anonymously, some face to face, and

28
00:01:34,319 --> 00:01:37,080
Speaker 2: they identified different problems in the organization.

29
00:01:37,319 --> 00:01:40,000
Speaker 1: How much how much do you reckon it's cost rate

30
00:01:40,040 --> 00:01:41,440
Speaker 1: payers the whole.

31
00:01:41,520 --> 00:01:45,679
Speaker 2: We don't know that, and there would be huge money

32
00:01:46,280 --> 00:01:50,559
Speaker 2: involved in investigating that. All we can do is show

33
00:01:50,720 --> 00:01:53,240
Speaker 2: that where the system is deficient, where things have not

34
00:01:53,360 --> 00:01:56,640
Speaker 2: worked properly for years, and fix it. And the fixing right,

35
00:01:56,920 --> 00:01:58,200
Speaker 2: that fixing is the important thing.

36
00:02:00,080 --> 00:02:02,920
Speaker 1: But are you sure? I mean I read somewhere that

37
00:02:02,920 --> 00:02:04,919
Speaker 1: it was three times what you should have paid for pipes?

38
00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:07,520
Speaker 1: Is that right? And so yeah, well how much have

39
00:02:07,560 --> 00:02:10,200
Speaker 1: you spent on pipes? You know? Can we not work back?

40
00:02:10,600 --> 00:02:12,920
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, we're talking millions, aren't we?

41
00:02:13,440 --> 00:02:17,880
Speaker 2: Oh? Absolutely, yeah, Look, it's a huge cost. I couldn't

42
00:02:17,919 --> 00:02:20,640
Speaker 2: begin to put a quantity on it.

43
00:02:20,680 --> 00:02:23,240
Speaker 1: Who was the thing is? You're the chair. It's not

44
00:02:23,280 --> 00:02:26,960
Speaker 1: actually really your fault. It's the chief executive and she

45
00:02:27,160 --> 00:02:29,280
Speaker 1: left just as Tony was it. Tonya has School she

46
00:02:29,400 --> 00:02:31,119
Speaker 1: the one in charge when all this was going down.

47
00:02:31,639 --> 00:02:34,040
Speaker 2: Tonya has School was the chief executive for eighteen months

48
00:02:34,760 --> 00:02:39,040
Speaker 2: and before that there was another long standing chief executive

49
00:02:39,440 --> 00:02:42,280
Speaker 2: and the new chief executive has come in and lifted

50
00:02:42,440 --> 00:02:48,600
Speaker 2: the lid on the situation and we have obviously invested

51
00:02:48,760 --> 00:02:51,880
Speaker 2: time and effort to get things where they need to

52
00:02:51,919 --> 00:02:55,120
Speaker 2: be so rate payers can be assured that they're going

53
00:02:55,160 --> 00:02:57,880
Speaker 2: to get value for money for the rates they paid awards.

54
00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:00,720
Speaker 1: So you're you're staying in your job? What have you

55
00:03:00,760 --> 00:03:03,200
Speaker 1: said to the Mayor's Look, I'll go to the councils.

56
00:03:03,200 --> 00:03:04,480
Speaker 1: I'll go if you want me to. Is that what

57
00:03:04,480 --> 00:03:04,880
Speaker 1: you've said?

58
00:03:04,880 --> 00:03:08,400
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I mean I think, I think, I'm I'm

59
00:03:09,080 --> 00:03:12,040
Speaker 2: I'm seasoned enough to read the signals that the thing

60
00:03:12,080 --> 00:03:14,880
Speaker 2: about Wellington Water is it's not going to exist beyond

61
00:03:15,240 --> 00:03:17,360
Speaker 2: about the middle of next year because there will be

62
00:03:17,400 --> 00:03:20,639
Speaker 2: a new water entity form assuming everything goes to you.

63
00:03:22,280 --> 00:03:26,800
Speaker 1: So this has this has been a raught basically for

64
00:03:26,480 --> 00:03:28,520
Speaker 1: the subcontractors, hasn't it.

65
00:03:28,560 --> 00:03:32,519
Speaker 2: Well? I think that this has raised questions for all

66
00:03:32,520 --> 00:03:34,200
Speaker 2: the people that have had all the companies that have

67
00:03:34,240 --> 00:03:38,320
Speaker 2: had contracting arrangements. But Ryan, I'd say this Wellington Waters

68
00:03:38,920 --> 00:03:42,119
Speaker 2: process is allowed that to happen, and what we've done

69
00:03:42,160 --> 00:03:45,440
Speaker 2: is change that. So we're getting more contestability well.

70
00:03:46,840 --> 00:03:51,560
Speaker 1: Up for the last what six months of your life. Yeah,

71
00:03:51,600 --> 00:03:54,560
Speaker 1: there'll be just be shaking.

72
00:03:56,640 --> 00:03:59,840
Speaker 2: Justifiably so. But but the key point is, I mean,

73
00:03:59,840 --> 00:04:03,280
Speaker 2: this is a company that doesn't have an asset management system,

74
00:04:03,320 --> 00:04:06,040
Speaker 2: it doesn't have a finance system, it doesn't even have

75
00:04:06,080 --> 00:04:08,560
Speaker 2: a payroll system, right, so it was never it's never

76
00:04:08,600 --> 00:04:11,520
Speaker 2: been invested in. What we're trying to do is improve

77
00:04:11,560 --> 00:04:13,640
Speaker 2: it and build it up so when a new water

78
00:04:13,840 --> 00:04:16,480
Speaker 2: entity takes over that actually owns the assets and is

79
00:04:16,520 --> 00:04:19,119
Speaker 2: in control of its own destiny, it will be able

80
00:04:19,200 --> 00:04:22,400
Speaker 2: to do as well as it possibly can from day one.

81
00:04:22,800 --> 00:04:25,840
Speaker 2: We can't just sit around and drink tea. We've taken

82
00:04:25,920 --> 00:04:28,480
Speaker 2: action because that's what actually residents expect.

83
00:04:28,560 --> 00:04:30,400
Speaker 1: It sounds like there's been a lot of drinking tea. Nick,

84
00:04:30,440 --> 00:04:32,760
Speaker 1: Thank you, Nick. Let get tear of the board at

85
00:04:32,800 --> 00:04:36,839
Speaker 1: Wellington Water. For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive listen

86
00:04:36,920 --> 00:04:39,960
Speaker 1: live to news talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays

87
00:04:40,080 --> 00:04:42,240
Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio