Source: Radio New Zealand
In September last year a stash of more than 200 papers were found in a locked cupboard within a mayoral desk that was bought from Wellington’s Tip Shop. 123RF
Confidential documents discovered in a former Wellington mayoral desk sold to a member of the public should have been destroyed, a review has found.
It’s also revealed the desk was checked three times before its sale.
In September last year a stash of more than 200 papers were found in a locked cupboard within the desk bought from the Tip Shop, a second-hand store at the city’s landfill.
Furniture from the Wellington Town Hall was sold there during the building’s redevelopment.
The council has been investigating how the items were sold, and why confidential documents were not removed from them.
The documents were dated between 1988 and 2004, during which time Sir James Belich, Dame Fran Wilde, Mark Blumsky and Dame Kerry Prendergast were mayor.
When the papers were discovered, Dame Kerry said they were “potentially incredibly damaging”.
The agenda for next week’s Audit and Risk committee meeting show the “desk privacy incident” will be discussed.
The council carried out an internal review and also commissioned Grant Thornton to carry out a review, the agenda shows.
The Grant Thornton review found the storage of the documents – which included personal information like names and email addresses – did not follow council policy.
It said a number should have been destroyed, and others should have been destroyed after seven years, while two should have been archived.
“From an interview with an ex-Mayor, we understand the documents were created and deliberately stored outside of the WCC filing system as they were considered confidential to the Mayor, due to the nature of the documentation, reflecting the Mayor’s responsibilities regarding the Council Chief Executive and elected members.”
It was unclear whether the council knew about the documents, but mayoral staff would have, it said.
The desk had been checked for documents three times as it was moved from place to place – once in 2013 and twice in 2025.
The last inspection was at the Tip Shop, where “all drawers were found to be empty, and the item was cleared for removal and sale”.
The review said there was no evidence to consider whether the locked cupboard was not noticed, or if it was noticed but not checked.
“While WCC were unaware of the documentation in the locked cupboard in the desk, there were three opportunities for the
cupboard to be identified, opened and the documents retrieved,” the report said.
“The disposal processes do not appear to be consistent with the requirements of the Council Privacy Policy to ensure ‘everything reasonably within the power of the agency is done’.”
Elected members were not bound by council policies but the council could do better by giving greater support around record-keeping, it said.
The council’s “key challenge” was increasing the awareness of risk and the importance of following policies among staff, it said.
It recommended the council establish an asset disposal policy, strengthens its procedures, improves information management training, and enhance “relocation controls”.
The council’s internal review found it breached two privacy principles: storage and security, and retention.
It accepted both reviews’ findings and has since updated Tip Shop’s operating procedures, commissioned a formal asset disposal policy, strengthened its relocation and furniture checking processes, and enhanced “elected member transition processes to support the return of confidential physical documentation”.
It’s also considering mandatory information management training, and has checked remaining furniture in storage to ensure no more documents were “overlooked”.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
