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The New Zealand team is in the middle of a major dispute with the ministry that funds part of the America’s Cup sailing event.
The champion of the cup claims that the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) acted inappropriately in handling the accusations of a whistleblower which were later refuted. MBIE refutes that he acted inappropriately.
Team New Zealand said it did not know for five months that its partner at the event, MBIE, was investigating the allegations against it and that it continued to receive new recordings of its board meetings.
Hannah Peters / Getty Images
The New Zealand team says MBIE acted inappropriately in handling one whistleblower’s allegations, which were later refuted.
In a public dump of correspondence between the team and MBIE, the cup defender revealed that he had sent his complaint to public control bodies such as the Ombudsman and the State Services Commission.
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At the root of the consequences are the six months MBIE spent working with the “whistleblower”, contractors Mayo and Calder, before informing Team New Zealand that allegations had been filed.
Mayo and Calder were hired by ACE and the Italian Challenger of Record, to help manage the event, but the firm has lost both roles and is now embroiled in legal action with Team New Zealand.
An audit commissioned by MBIE found no wrongdoing by Team New Zealand or its sister company America’s Cup Event Limited (ACE), which partnered with MBIE and the Auckland Council to carry out the event.
A detailed background written by ACE CEO Greg Horton on September 17 details how MBIE demanded Team NZ CEO Grant Dalton to resign from his sideline position at the helm of ACE, first in a phone call to the president. of the team, Sir Stephen Tindall, on June 23.
“Mr. (Iain) Cossar reported separately (ACE president) Tina Symman in a phone call on Monday, June 29 – that Mr. Dalton and other personnel needed to be replaced and that was not negotiable,” Horton wrote.
Another example of the breakup is in an Aug. 12 letter from ACE Directors Greg Horton and Tina Symmans in response to MBIE CEO Carolyn Tremain.
“The overall tone of (Tremain’s) letter is disappointing and unacceptable given the nature of our relationship,” ACE wrote.
“We are concerned that the actions of the hosts to date represent a departure from the spirit of cooperation and partnership that has existed for the past two and a half years.”
EMIRATES TEAM NZ
Te Aihe of the New Zealand team in flight during training in Auckland.
Tindall on Tuesday said Things The decision to go public followed a reference in the MBIE media that it had at one point contacted the Serious Fraud Office about the allegations.
The president of Team NZ tried to clarify that comment with MBIE CEO Carolyn Tremain in a phone call.
“Carolyn said she had spoken to the OFS, I asked her how it went, she said I can’t tell you,” Tindall said.
Team New Zealand and MBIE are locked in a mediation process to resolve the defender’s bad faith allegation and resolve a $ 3 million transfer between ACE and Team NZ.
ACE said the payment represented half the cost of the equipment to create a new class of ship for the event, but MBIE believed that it should not be considered an event cost.
However, the mediation has not yet started because Team NZ has sought information from MBIE under the Official Information Act and was told in July that the information might not be provided until November.
In another indicator of the broken relationship between Team NZ and MBIE, Horton wrote Tremain in September saying that letters raising good faith, natural justice and other issues remained unanswered.
“We tried to raise these issues in our phone call with MBIE on August 18, 2020, but they informed us that we were ‘offline’ and that if we continued with the issues, the call would end,” Horton wrote.
GILLES MARTIN-RAGET / ACEA 2017
NZ Team Captain Glenn Ashby, Team Principal Matteo de Nora, Helmsman Peter Burling and CEO Grant Dalton celebrate winning the America’s Cup in Bermuda in 2017.
“Separately, [Team NZ chair] Sir Stephen Tindall was advised by MBIE [Ms Tremain] On or around August 18, we should publicly raise the issues of good faith and natural justice that the senior government ministers involved and MBIE would be very critical of us in the public arena, or words to that effect. “
Things understands that even the strong wording of the correspondence minimizes the depth of sentiment within the NZ Team leadership about how MBIE has treated it in dealing with the rebutted allegations.
MBIE Executive Director Carolyn Tremain said she had treated all parties involved with “due respect” and vigorously refuted the issues raised in the ACE letters.
Tremain said the ministry appointed experienced and professional forensic accountants to verify that ACE and Team New Zealand were meeting their respective obligations.
Ross Giblin / Stuff
MBIE Executive Director Carolyn Tremain said the Ministry vigorously refutes many of the letters raised in the ACE letters.
“As Mr. Horton noted in his September 17 statement published by ETNZ to the media, ACE has recognized that the approach to providing the information required for the audit was not helpful, and that more comprehensive disclosures would have helped to address concerns (auditor) Beattie Varley had raised “.
Tremain said MBIE and ACE jointly agreed to mediation, which was the “appropriate place to discuss and resolve such issues.”
This mediation was expected to take place in December.
“MBIE remains committed to doing its part to ensure that the 36th America’s Cup is a successful event,” said Tremain.
