Dear Wellington Water Limited,

Based on a search of key terms in emails between procurement/project management staff employed by WWL or subcontracted to it, please identify how many staff have been invited to social drinks with contractors and whether these relationships/events have been disclosed in any register.

key terms such as the following:

1. Core “drinking / social” keywords

drinks / drink / beers / beer / wine / whisky/ keg
catch up / meetup / meet-up / get together
after work / after-work / after hours
Friday drinks / team drinks
happy hour
dinner / lunch / breakfast meeting
shout / I’ll shout / my shout
hospitality / hosting
bar / pub / restaurant
“grab a drink”
“quick one”

These capture informal language, which is where risk usually hides.

2. Link to contractors / procurement context

Now combine with terms tying them to decision-making roles:

contractor / supplier / vendor
tender / bid / RFP / RFQ
procurement / sourcing
project manager / contract manager
award / awarded / selection
panel / evaluation
variation / change order
invoice / payment / approval

3. Probity / influence / benefit indicators

These are critical—they distinguish harmless socialising from potential breaches:

paid / covered / expense / expensed
“on us” / “my treat” / “company card”
favour / help / push through
approval / sign-off
“look after”
“take care of”
“no paper trail” (rare but high-value)
gift / hospitality
tickets / event / box / corporate
relationship / mate / friend

4. High-value combined search strings

Instead of single words, use compound queries (this is where the real signal is):

Examples:
"drinks" AND (contractor OR supplier)
"grab a drink" AND (project OR tender)
(beer OR wine OR dinner) AND (contract manager OR procurement)
(hospitality OR shout OR "my treat") AND (supplier OR vendor)
(after work OR happy hour) AND (contract OR variation OR approval)
(restaurant OR bar) AND (contractor AND approval)
5. Behaviour-pattern searches (very effective)

These often reveal intent better than obvious keywords:

(“good to catch up”) AND (contractor)
(“let’s discuss offline”) AND (drinks OR dinner)
(“before the tender” OR “after the meeting”) AND (drinks)
(“can you approve”) AND (lunch OR dinner)
(“thanks for last night”) AND (project OR contract)

6. Red-flag phrases (low frequency, high impact)

“keep this between us”
“off the record”
“don’t include in email”
“I’ll take care of it” (with contractor context)
“we’ll sort it over a drink”

7. Metadata / pattern filters (often overlooked)

If you can, also filter by:

Emails outside business hours
Repeated 1:1 exchanges between same contractor + manager
Calendar invites with vague titles (“catch up”, “coffee”, “drinks”)
Expense claims tied to vendors

Yours faithfully,

Simon Glenn