Nick Leggett: Wellington Water Chair on the 'scathing' report uncovering theft and structural issues

The Chair of Wellington Water says he's considering stepping down, after a scathing report uncovered more organisational failures.

It highlights a lack of oversight in contracting work, with pipe maintenance work paid at nearly three times the comparable council rate.

Nick Leggett says he'll step down if the region's mayors want him to but he has acted on the issues in question.

"What we've tried to do is lift the lid on that - be honest and upfront. There wasn't the right competitive tension to get the best value for ratepayers, the internal systems for the organisation, the financial checks - those kind of processes were appalling." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We have yet another damning report into the state of
Wellington Water today spells out alleged theft by one individual,
poor value for money from contractors, systemic structure issues, lack
of oversight for spending. In fact, it says that low
and authile and rate payers have foked out three times
what they should have for pipes. Nick Leggett is share

(00:20):
of Wellington Water. He's with me, Hinik, you've offered to
resign apparently because of this report. Has anyone accepted that.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
I haven't offered to resign. I've said I've certainly listen
to our shareholders. I mean, this is a damning report
and Wellington Water has come under criticism that I can
only say is justified and people should be appalled. What
we've tried to do is lift a lid on that.
Be honest and upfront. There wasn't the right competitive tension

(00:51):
to get the best value for ratepayers. The internal systems
for the organization that the financial checks, those kind of
processes appalling. And it's been a continuum since the report
last year. Really that where there was a big budget
eerror and.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Did you need a report to tell you all this?
Because it's in the Deloitte report. The summary, it says
that every employee interviewed said that they saw big holes
in the system.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
That's right. And so what happened was when our new
chief executive arrived in about September last year, employees came forward.
They came forward to me. We ran a whistleblower type approach.
People came forward, some anonymously, some face to face, and
they identified different problems in the organization.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
How much how much do you reckon it's cost rate
payers the whole.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
We don't know that, and there would be huge money
involved in investigating that. All we can do is show
that where the system is deficient, where things have not
worked properly for years, and fix it. And the fixing right,
that fixing is the important thing.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
But are you sure? I mean I read somewhere that
it was three times what you should have paid for pipes?
Is that right? And so yeah, well how much have
you spent on pipes? You know? Can we not work back?
I think, yeah, we're talking millions, aren't we?

Speaker 2 (02:13):
Oh? Absolutely, yeah, Look, it's a huge cost. I couldn't
begin to put a quantity on it.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
Who was the thing is? You're the chair. It's not
actually really your fault. It's the chief executive and she
left just as Tony was it. Tonya has School she
the one in charge when all this was going down.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
Tonya has School was the chief executive for eighteen months
and before that there was another long standing chief executive
and the new chief executive has come in and lifted
the lid on the situation and we have obviously invested
time and effort to get things where they need to

(02:51):
be so rate payers can be assured that they're going
to get value for money for the rates they paid awards.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
So you're you're staying in your job? What have you
said to the Mayor's Look, I'll go to the councils.
I'll go if you want me to. Is that what
you've said?

Speaker 2 (03:04):
Oh yeah, I mean I think, I think, I'm I'm
I'm seasoned enough to read the signals that the thing
about Wellington Water is it's not going to exist beyond
about the middle of next year because there will be
a new water entity form assuming everything goes to you.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
So this has this has been a raught basically for
the subcontractors, hasn't it.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
Well? I think that this has raised questions for all
the people that have had all the companies that have
had contracting arrangements. But Ryan, I'd say this Wellington Waters
process is allowed that to happen, and what we've done
is change that. So we're getting more contestability well.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
Up for the last what six months of your life. Yeah,
there'll be just be shaking.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
Justifiably so. But but the key point is, I mean,
this is a company that doesn't have an asset management system,
it doesn't have a finance system, it doesn't even have
a payroll system, right, so it was never it's never
been invested in. What we're trying to do is improve
it and build it up so when a new water
entity takes over that actually owns the assets and is
in control of its own destiny, it will be able

(04:19):
to do as well as it possibly can from day one.
We can't just sit around and drink tea. We've taken
action because that's what actually residents expect.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
It sounds like there's been a lot of drinking tea. Nick,
Thank you, Nick. Let get tear of the board at
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