OIAD 5482 Response Luke.pdf- update v2
john luke made this Official Information request to Department of Conservation
The request was successful.
From: john luke
Dear Department of Conservation,
Thank you for your reply- OIAD 5482 Response Luke.pdf
I noted that Fale Andrew Lesā claimed to hold a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Management. However, according to recent news reports, it was confirmed that he does not hold any bachelor’s degree.
What steps have you taken to verify this information? If this claim is indeed false, it constitutes a serious case of misrepresentation and potentially fraud, as it may have influenced his appointment within the department.
Has your office begun an internal investigation into this matter? Furthermore, what measures are being taken to strengthen your recruitment and verification processes to prevent similar issues in the future?
If no action has been taken so far, I, as a member of the general public, urge you to look into this matter promptly.
Yours faithfully,
john luke
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Kia ora John,
Please find attached the Department of Conservation’s response to your
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Hey John, just an FYI and you may be across already, but along with the environmental management course that Mr Lesa claimed he studied, I compiled a list from various public sources of his other studies which seems to possibly contradict each other. Years listed below are of when the articles were published:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-n...
2010 - third year studying law and politics at UOA
https://m.facebook.com/watch/?v=69293561...
2020 - studied policy at UOA
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/teenager-e...
2009- second year of joint law and politics degree of UOA
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/sites/defaul...
Date unknown - environmental management UOA
https://gjia.georgetown.edu/2019/11/27/p...
2019 - policy UOA
https://www.myd.govt.nz/news/2012/congra...
2012 - law and political science
However, as per 2025 Stuff Investigation (https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/36076296... ) verbatim quote from article showed that “In terms of study at the University of Auckland, he acknowledged he did not graduate but said he “studied geography as part of the tertiary foundation certificate at the University of Auckland in 2008.”
That also brings with it another question, if Mr Lesa only studied geography as part of a tertiary foundation course has he potentially misstated what he actually studied or not studied to organizational entities?
That is not to mention the JD at Yale issue that was mentioned in the article.
Link to this