The Government had two attempts to recruit a chief technology officer, the first ending in failure in January when none of 60 applicants were deemed right for the job. Former communications minister Clare Curran re-scope the role before re-advertising the vacancy in May.
So the "rethink" does indeed look rather late.
"Former minister?"
Yes. Curran stood down from Cabinet and then as minister after admitting in August that she arranged through gmail to meet with Handley to discuss the CTO position, at his request, in February.
She "omitted" to mentioned that she had that late night meeting in the Beehive when listing her appointments for the month in response to a parliamentary question, which was the precise reason she gave for leaving the Cabinet.
Later, she stood down as minister after crumbling under pressure explaining why she had been using a personal gmail account for Government business.Clare Curran said she had "forgotten" about her meeting with Derek Handley in February when answering a written question on her appointments the following month, and took "full responsibility for not following proper process".
Was it OK for her to meet with Handley? Wasn't she interfering in a public service appointment?
Glad you asked that.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) managed the two application processes for the CTO job.
But the CTO role was created as a "one person ministerial advisory group".
A "one person group" sounds silly, but the significance is that it was always going to be ministers who appointed the successful CTO candidate, not officials.
The CTO would have reported directly to Curran and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
Still, you can imagine other candidates who applied for the role through MBIE might be cheesed off that a fellow candidate had gone straight to the top.
