Source: Peace Action Wellington
Date: 13 October 2026
From: Peace Action Wellington
Peace Action Wellington has written to the Auditor-General seeking an
urgent inquiry into the spending activities and decisions of the NZDF
and Ministry of Defence in light of recent reporting.
Journalist Andrea Vance writing in _The Post_ [1]on 13 October 2026
stated: ‘Engineering giant Beca was awarded more than $237 million in
Defence Force contracts while its chief executive chaired a government
defence advisory body, including $40m in work awarded without an open
tender.’
In August 2026 NZDF awarded a further contract with Saab without any
tender process. This was not publicly reported in New Zealand at all,
but does feature in international defence reporting_: New Zealand
upgrades Army firepower with Saab Carl-Gustaf M4 weapon systems to
replace ageing M3 inventory from 2027_ in Defence Industry Europe [2]
These situations (and perhaps others), seen in the context of the
practices and activities identified in the 2025 Auditor General _Letter
to New Zealand Defence Force: Managing gifts and hospitality [3] -_ that
specifically identified Beca -_ _raises further questions about the
nature of public spending by the NZDF and Ministry of Defence.
“The NZDF and Ministry of Defence dream up justifications for giving
contracts to business mates, failing to conduct open tenders, and making
completely opaque public spending decisions worth hundreds of millions
of dollars with no real public accountability or oversight of the
activities. It is an old story of profiteering and price gouging by the
world’s biggest and most destructive industry, but it is totally
unacceptable, and the Auditor-General needs to turn the bright spotlight
back onto it,” said Valerie Morse, member of Peace Action Wellington.
Links:
[1]
https://www.thepost.co.nz/politics/361095603/beca-won-237m-defence-contracts-while-its-chief-chaired-advisory-body
[2]
https://defence-industry.eu/new-zealand-upgrades-army-firepower-with-saab-carl-gustaf-m4-weapon-systems-to-replace-ageing-m3-inventory-from-2027/
[3] https://ao.parliament.nz/2025/nzdf-gifts#autotoc-item-autotoc-2