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

Dear Official Information,
Subject: Clarification of LGOIMA Request – Aggregated Search Results

Kia ora Leni,

Thank you for your response.

To address concerns regarding scope and privacy, I refine my request to seek **aggregated, de-identified information only**, rather than individual emails.
Timeframe

Each financial year for the past five years:

* 1 July 2020 – 30 June 2021
* 1 July 2021 – 30 June 2022
* 1 July 2022 – 30 June 2023
* 1 July 2023 – 30 June 2024
* 1 July 2024 – present

Custodians

Staff or contractors in roles of:

* Project Manager
* Contract Manager
* Procurement Manager

Search Methodology
Using a standard mailbox or eDiscovery search, identify emails that contain:

> **At least one term from Group A AND at least one term from Group B**

**Group A – Social / Hospitality Terms:**
“drinks”, “drink”, “beer”, “wine”, “lunch”, “dinner”, “coffee”, “catch up”, “meet up”, “after work”, “happy hour”, “restaurant”, “bar”, “pub”, “hospitality”, “my treat”, “shout”

**Group B – Contractor / Work Context Terms:**
“contractor”, “supplier”, “vendor”, “tender”, “procurement”, “project”, “contract”, “variation”, “approval”

Use the following query script :
("drinks" OR "drink" OR "beer" OR "wine" OR "lunch" OR "dinner" OR "coffee" OR "catch up" OR "meet up" OR "after work" OR "happy hour" OR "restaurant" OR "bar" OR "pub" OR "hospitality" OR "my treat" OR "shout")
AND
("contractor" OR "supplier" OR "vendor" OR "tender" OR "procurement" OR "project" OR "contract" OR "variation" OR "approval")

Information Requested (Aggregated Only)

For each financial year:

1. The total number of emails matching the above criteria
2. The number of unique staff accounts associated with those emails (de-identified)
3. A distribution of email counts per staff account (e.g. 1, 2–5, 6–10, 10+)
4. Where available, the number of distinct external counterparties (e.g. DNS domains) involved
5. Monthly or quarterly distribution of matching emails
6. Count of matching emails occurring outside standard business hours
Clarification

This request does not seek the content of emails or the identification of individuals. It is limited to aggregated, anonymised information derived from a structured search.

Please proceed on this clarified basis.

Ngā mihi,