Defence Force will change culture, politicians told

The culture in the Defence Force (NZDF) will change following the mishandling of staff caught wrongly claiming allowances, politicians were told today.

Auditor-General Lyn Provost criticised the way NZDF handled senior staff after they were found double-dipping on accommodation allowances when working for the United Nations, in a report released in July.

At a committee meeting in Parliament today, Chief of Defence Lieutenant General Jerry Mateparae accepted the Auditor-General's report and said her findings mirrored their own court of inquiry.

"As a result (of) the 2008 court of inquiry we have set about to change the settings in the Defence Force.

"We own the problem and we are fixing the problem and we will learn from that."

He said he spoke to Ms Provost and admitted there was an issue.

"So we are changing the framework in the headquarters."

Labour MP Pete Hodgson said the committee was interested in the way they could stop this from happening in the future, rather than how it had happened.

He criticised the amount of time it took NZDF to investigate the problem in 2008.

"[There are] subcultures that are not found in other parts of society... so you end up with these loyalty systems that are an integral part of a good defence force, and those same loyalty systems are part of the reason why stuff like this does not get uncovered," Mr Hodgson said.

The Auditor-General was asked by the previous Labour government to investigate the causes of the problem.

She said it was mismanaged "from start to finish".

The inquiry team found that three aspects of the organisational culture in the NZDF headquarters contributed to the problem:

* A strong silo mentality which enabled people to see the issue as someone else's problem;

* the military discipline of hierarchy and command lines, which enabled people to see it as inappropriate for them to question decisions apparently taken by their superiors; and

* a general desire for practical solutions to problems, and an inadequate recognition of when those solutions may conflict with fundamental public sector values.

Lt Gen Mateparae said they found if people had followed due process and had been of integrity then this "whole sorry saga" would never have occurred.

"The values that the Defence Force have... relate not only to the battlefield but to the work they do in Wellington. We need to demonstrate that we are an organisation that holds integrity.

"We do need to understand that we will hold people to account for decisions that they make," Lt Gen Mateparae said.