NZTA has spin doctor hiring spree

The Government’s embattled transport agency is facing fresh criticism after going on a spin doctor hiring spree.

NZTA nearly doubled the number of staff employed in media and communications roles between 2017 and 2019.

This coincided with a tumultuous period in NZTA’s history where it was found to be negligent as a regulator, a scandal which eventually cost a motorist his life. National MP Chris Bishop said the agency should be focusing on building roads, rather than hiring communications staff.

NZTA’s most recent quarterly report said the state highway building programme faced ‘‘significant funding pressure’’.

‘‘People will be frustrated the transport agency was able to find more money for comms pros and spin doctors but they can’t find money for road upgrades,’’ Bishop said. NZTA’s spend-up was revealed in an answer to a written parliamentary question from Bishop. The agency employed the equivalent of 37 fulltime permanent staff and three staff on fixed term contracts in media communications, marketing, stakeholder engagement and public affairs roles, as of July 2019.

This is nearly double the number employed in July 2017, when the agency employed 17.5 permanent staff and 8.6 fixed-term employees. The precise number of staff may differ, as the figures were calculated as fulltime equivalents, rather than an exact number of both fulltime and part-time staff.

A spokesperson for NZTA said most of the communications team were involved in ‘‘community engagement activities’’.

‘‘In recent years a number of communications and engagement staff who were previously based within project teams have been brought in-house to work as one team, in order to lift our capacity and capability in this area, with a strong focus on community and stakeholder engagement.’’ They said the team’s role was to engage with people who would provide input on transport decisions.

NZTA has faced scrutiny this week as the full cost of the regulatory compliance scandal was laid bare. Law firm Meredeth Connell, hired to review the files of the sub-par warrant of fitness and licence issuers at the heart of the scandal, was paid $7.2 million.

Meanwhile, NZTA has faced criticism it has been unable to get crucial infrastructure projects built. It has struggled to spend its budget on highway improvements, which have come in $264.8m under budget, according to its latest quarterly report.

This translates into many incomplete or delayed projects.