Our response: Inquiry into the Use of External Security Consultants

21 December 2018

Fire and Emergency New Zealand has been in existence since 1 July 2017.

It was formed through the amalgamation of 40 separate organisation throughout New Zealand, and 38 of the organisations amalgamated were either part of local government or were enlarged rural fire authorities. 

While the records in regards to the now disestablished New Zealand Fire Service and National Rural Fire Authority are robust and at hand, information for the other 38 organisations is dispersed throughout local government.  

We have made enquiries within Fire and Emergency and searched our accounts payable and procurement databases for the organisations listed in the letter dated 23 July 2018 from Doug Martin.

We have not been able find any record of any contracts with these organisations nor have we been able to find any payments made to those organisations.

We have also made enquiries of our Strategic Leadership Team to determine whether any are aware of the use of external security consultants. At the time of writing this response, we are not aware of the use of any external security consultants (as defined) in Fire and Emergency.

It should be noted that we use both Wordpress and Slack, however to the best of our knowledge they are not used for communicating with external security consultants. Our ICT staff have been asked to review privacy and security surrounding these platforms.