Findings on unrepentant Makhlouf are damning; he must not escape accountability
27 JUNE 2019

Responding to the release of the State Services Commission’s findings into Treasury Secretary Gabriel Makhlouf, New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says:

“The State Services Commissioner deserves credit for an investigation that made clear and damning findings. The report finds that the ‘deliberately and systematically hacked’ statement, plus the bolt analogy, were not accurate, and that Mr Makhlouf failed to take personal responsibility for the security failure. In other words, Mr Makhlouf has failed in his first responsibility: to the taxpayers who fund his salary, and who deserve accuracy in the public statements of one of the country’s most highly-paid bureaucrats.”

“Mr Makhlouf’s complete lack of repentance in the face of these findings insults the public, and it is a stunning failure of process that his departure from the job today is allowing him to escape the full wrath of accountability. The Government must order him to face up to the media and public in the next few hours. If he doesn’t have to do this, he’ll be laughing all the way to Dublin.”

“The timing of the announcement of these findings looks cynical; it’s the same day and Makhlouf leaves his job and the Government announces a high profile reshuffle. If he plans on going into hiding for his final few hours, it is the job this Government and the media to flush him out of the woodwork, lest we see a bitter failure in accountability. The public are entitled to expect more accountability than Mr Makhlouf reading the report as he jets off to Ireland.”

ENDS

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