Source: Radio New Zealand
File photo. boscorelli
Leadership churn has been occurring at the top of a $1.6 billion public safety project, with Tait Systems about to get its fourth chief executive this year.
Tait Systems New Zealand (TSNZ) is building a nationwide mobile radio network as part of the Public Safety Network (PSN) to connect emergency responders in floods and other major and minor disasters.
Ambulance, police and Fire and Emergency services are already using a stronger cellular network set up under PSN, but the digital radio part was running behind, and its budget last year hit Treasury’s ‘Top 10’ for reported cost pressures by value.
In January, TSNZ chief executive John Proctor stepped down. His successor Paul Hallowes then stepped down this month, and an interim chief executive Penny Hoogerwerf was in place while the company looked for a permanent replacement.
“I have stepped in as interim CEO to ensure stability and maintain momentum during the recruitment process,” Hoogerwerf told RNZ in a statement.
“As part of my role as Tait Systems board director, I have deep and longstanding knowledge of the programme, strong relationships with delivery partners, and immediate operational understanding.”
Work was continuing “at pace”, Hoogerwerf said.
The work came under the police-run Next Generation Critical Communications (NGCC) project.
NGCC director Steve Ferguson said its number one priority was ensuring TSNZ delivered the radio network.
“TSNZ has advised NGCC of their leadership changes and we continue to interact with them regularly and positively through comprehensive governance and programme management mechanisms,” Ferguson said in a statement.
In 2024 TSNZ, a subsidiary of Tait Communications, and Kordia ended a joint venture set up in 2022. Kordia kept doing some work for it.
“We have welcomed all initiatives and investment TSNZ has made to increase the pace of delivery since assuming full responsibility… from the previous vendor Tait Kordia Joint Venture,” said Ferguson.
That included setting up a wide network of contractors to acquire and build on sites for what was one of the world’s most complex builds using Project 25 technology that scrambled voice and data to encrypt it, he said.
The company had so far acquired about 300 of the 500 radio sites needed, and 161 were built on and ready for testing. Another 14 were under construction.
Hato Hone St John put 700 new radios into its national fleet late last year.
“The new Land Mobile Radio network is well and truly in sight,” Ferguson said at the time.
The latest Treasury quarterly investment report, to September 2025, said while 70 percent of the time set aside to build it had passed, only 24 percent of the budget had been spent, or $386m. It gave a completion date for the PSN of December 2026, now pushed back into 2027.
Hoogerwerf said TSNZ still benefited from having Proctor on its board, adding Hallowes had stepped down after many years with TSNZ and she thanked him for his contribution to the success of “this important project”.
It was “currently in the process of recruiting a new CEO to drive the intensive delivery” of the network which would be “rigorously tested and delivered into the hands of emergency services”.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
