Brian Neeson
Opposition Police Spokesperson

The Government’s announcement today it’s scaling down the INCIS inquiry, and putting it behind closed doors, is only appropriate if the Government can guarantee one thing, Opposition Police spokesperson Brian Neeson said today.

“This new inquiry must get to the bottom of why exactly we got into this mess in the first place.

“The previous Government did not set up the Commission of Inquiry into INCIS to waste time or money.

“It was seen as the best and most open and public way of establishing exactly what went wrong with the INCIS contract and what can be learned.

“The Commission of Inquiry is already underway and due to report back on May 1 which is a month before this new inquiry is due to report back.

“National will support anything that will give New Zealanders a proper explanation for the whole INCIS debacle.

“New Zealanders want accountability over INCIS, and a public inquiry is the best way of ensuring that. However, we are concerned that this new inquiry will not be public.

“Before the election, Labour and the Alliance demanded answers and accountability over INCIS – the current Commission of Inquiry was going to deliver just that,” Mr Neeson said.

“The Police weren’t the only ones that got in trouble with information technology projects and it is important that lessons are learned that can be applied across the board.”

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