New Zealand’s Public Service Commissioner, Peter Hughes has criticised the Ministry of Health for producing a delayed and slimmed-down report on the state of the country’s mental health.
However, Mr Hughes stopped short of holding a formal inquiry into the report, which he said caused damage to the Ministry’s reputation with the public.
In April it was revealed the Ministry had made large edits to a years-late routine mental health report, with swathes of data removed on issues like wait times and access.
Emails, obtained by journalists under the Official Information Act 1982, showed a pitched battle between officials who worried there was a “lot of data and negative statistics” in the report and those who pushed for it to include as much data as it had in previous years.
Some questioned the need for the report altogether, arguing it was not a legal obligation.
Senior Public Servants at the Ministry told their Minister, Andrew Little that all the information that had previously been in the report was available elsewhere publicly.
However, they later recanted on this after it caused Mr Little to inadvertently mislead Parliament.
Director General of Health, Ashley Bloomfield (pictured) apologised to Mr Little.
Opposition Spokesperson for Mental Health, Matt Doocey asked for Mr Hughes to look into the matter in his role as the Public Service watchdog.
In a letter to Mr Doocey, Mr Hughes said the overall decision to slim down the report to focus on direct uses of the Mental Health Act 1992 was legitimately within Dr Bloomfield’s remit, but the Ministry’s attempt to communicate why it was doing this was poor.
The Commissioner said that in a letter to him Dr Bloomfield had stated there was an operational decision made by Ministry staff to refine the scope of the report, which resulted in a change in content from previous reports.
“Having looked into the matter, he is confident in the quality and integrity of the judgement of Ministry staff and considers the change in scope of the report was carefully considered and supported by strong rationale,” Mr Hughes said.
“We do not see any potential impropriety that would lead me to believe that an inquiry using my powers is warranted,” he said.
However, Mr Hughes said the way changes in the report had been managed led to a perception that decisions taken by the Ministry were for improper reasons.
“This has caused damage to the Ministry’s credibility with stakeholders and the public; this is regrettable,” he said.
Wellington, 9 June 2021
