That's the only response to the findings of the Ombudsman's investigation into LGOIMA practices at the Christchurch City Council:
My investigation identified serious concerns about the Council’s leadership and culture, and its commitment to openness and transparency. In particular, Council staff raised concerns with me about various methods employed by some members of the Executive Leadership Team to keep negative information about the Council from the public and/or elected members. These methods allegedly included manipulating or removing information from reports, project reporting not occurring, staff being told not to record information or to keep information in draft form. This has caused a perception to develop among staff that some members of the Executive Leadership Team wished to manipulate any messaging about the Council that might be negative.
The then-Chief Executive was in total denial about this, refusing to see any problem. The good news is that they've now left the job, and their replacement seems a lot more interested in transparency. Still, the Ombudsman has taken the unusual step for a practice investigation of issuing a formal recommendation to prevent this from happening again, which the council has accepted. Its a huge change from the previous situation, where the chief executive tried to ignore formal recommendations and had to be taken to court.
Which I guess shows how one rotten person at the top can undermine transparency in an entire organisation, and how important it is to keep an eye on them to stop that from happening.
