The New Zealand Professional Firefighters union says a scathing report into Fire and Emergency NZ’s actions reinforces what it has been saying for years.

The Minister for FENZ, Brooke van Velden, said the organisation was "breaching their own law in regards to levy collections" and thought she didn't need to know about it.

The governance and administration committee is recommending the government looks at changing the FENZ board and whether it should be allowed to buy its own trucks.

National vice president Martin Campbell said on Friday the union has been saying for years that FENZ has allowed the fleet get into a dilapidated state.

"The misrepresentation of senior FENZ leadership including the chief executive and deputy national commander to the parliamentary select committee didn't go unnoticed by that select committee and FENZ has been called out for intentionally deceiving the committee members."

Campell said he hoped to see some changes at the board and senior leadership level.

"We would go further and say our lack of support is in fact the whole senior leadership team being led by that chief executive that has failed our people, it has failed New Zealanders for quite some time now."

Van Velden said she was also in the dark about it spending nearly $500,000 looking into the issue.

"It's completely unacceptable, and it points to a lack of accountability across the public service."

It comes after the minister said on Thursday she no longer had confidence in the chief executive of the organisation, Kerry Gregory, following a "serious breach" of the no surprises clause.

Speaking to RNZ’s Morning Report programme on Friday she said her job was "to hold them accountable".

"How can I possibly do that if I'm being actively withheld information?"

Van Velden said she became aware of the situation about two weeks ago - and only because the board chair said she needed to know.

She said that was doing a disservice to the public service.

"It is important that every public agency that has taxpayer or levy payer money going into it is acting transparently and has accountability going to senior levels of officials.

"It is a clear breach of trust when the public service is not allowing that information to flow."

Van Velden told Morning Report FENZ had been referred to the Serious Fraud Office, based on the board's suggestions.

She said Fire and Emergency were acting "in breach of their own law" but couldn't go into further detail.

But other concerns it raised for her were that it appeared  Gregory  was not aware of the issue for quite some time.

"That's concerning in terms of internal culture."

Secondly, once he was aware, he decided not to let the minister responsible for FENZ know, Van Velden said.

"That's the thing that is, I think, despicable because there's constantly been issues within Fire and Emergency.”

Issues included levy modelling, payroll, fleet procurement, and making savings in the back office.

"But at least I knew about those issues so that I could hold them accountable to the plans and processes to make them better going forward.

"This was active withholding of information."

The minister said there were "clearly cultural issues at play" within the organisation, and it was for the board to make sure that they can restore her confidence.

She also referenced asking Department of Internal Affairs to do policy work on whether or not the cultural issues within Fire and Emergency was due to them being a crown entity "at arm's length from ministers", and if there needed to be change to bring better government accountability.