National Headquarters
Fire and Emergency New Zealand
National Headquarters
Spark Central , Level 7
42-52 Willis Street
Wellington Central
Wellington 6011
Phone +64 4 496 3600
5 December 2022
Mark MacDonald
By email: [FYI request #21062 email]
Tēnā koe Mark
Information Request – 2020 UFBA investigation into UFBA CEO
Thank you for your official information Act requests dated 7 and 13 November 2022, regarding
communications related to the 2020 UFBA investigation into the CEO of the UFBA.
We have combined your two requests for information and provided one response for both. In
accordance with the provisions of the Official Information Act 1982 (“OIA”), please find below a
response to your requests.
“Please provide all communications around the 2020 UFBA investigation into the UFBA CEO from
October 2020 to January 2021.”
Please find enclosed as appendix 1, all information in scope of you request. Some personal
information has been withheld to protect the privacy of natural persons under section 9(2)(a) of
the Official information Act 1982. We do not consider that there is a public interest in the release
of the information which outweighs withholding it. Some information is also withheld as it is out of
scope of your request.
Your request captured correspondence regarding the processing of an OIA related to this topic.
We have included the initial email request and our response to the OIA. We have excluded all
administrative emails regarding processing this OIA as we have deemed them out of scope of your
request.
1. Sid Wellik emails Brendan Nally apparently about the UFBA investigation on 17 August;
however, Sid is a FENZ employee so must have been informed about the UFBA investigation by
the UFBA at some point. Could you please provide the information from the UFBA to Sid that
must have predated Sid's 17 August email to Brendan?
Please note, in order to collate the information that you requested in your previous request we
undertook an IT email sweep of previous employees’ emails for communications in scope of your
request.
We completed a search of Sid Wellik’s emails and were unable to locate correspondence
confirming whether he was informed about the UFBA investigation by the UFBA formally. It may
be the case that he was informed verbally. Sid Wellik is no longer an employee at Fire and
Emergency, so we are unable to confirm this. Your request for that information is therefore
refused at this time under section 18(e) of the OIA, as the document alleged to contain the
information requested does not exist or, despite reasonable efforts to locate it, cannot be found.
2. The UFBA letter to FENZ of 18 Feb 2021 that you provided refers to an 11 Feb 2021 letter from
Swain to the UFBA about an audit of the UFBA and questions around the appropriateness of
Tangata Matatau. Please provide this letter.
Please find enclosed as appendix 2, the information you have requested. Some personal
information has been withheld to protect the privacy of natural persons under section 9(2)(a) of
the Official information Act 1982. We do not consider that there is a public interest in the release
of the information which outweighs withholding it.
3. You provided an 18 Feb 2021 email to Swain (presumably from the UFBA Board, although this
information was redacted) in response to Swain’s 11 Feb 2021 letter. This letter states, “The
UFBA CEO will address the points you raise about Tangata Matatau separately in his response to
correspondence received today from Rhys Jones.”
a) Could you please provide this information (apparently a 18 Feb 2021 letter from Jones to
UFBA/Bill Butzbach mentioning Tangata Matatau).
b) Could you please also provide UFBA CEO Butzbach’s response that is referred to here.”
Please find enclosed as appendix 3 the information you have requested. Some personal
information has been withheld to protect the privacy of natural persons under section 9(2)(a) of
the Official information Act 1982. We do not consider that there is a public interest in the release
of the information which outweighs withholding it.
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of this decision.
Information about how to make a complaint is availab
le at www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or
freephone 0800 802 602.
Nāku noa nā
Julia McCook-Weir
Manager, Information Requests
encl
