CTV families criticize the length of the investigation by the body of an engineer

The families of the 115 people who died in the CTV building collapse are baffled by how long it takes to investigate the man whose company designed it.

Engineering New Zealand, formerly known as IPENZ, was first asked to investigate Alan Reay eight years ago, and some believed that the credibility of the organization was at stake.

In 2012, a Royal Commission found that engineer David Harding made fundamental mistakes when designing the unfortunate building and criticized his boss, Alan Reay, for handing over sole responsibility for the design to someone so inexperienced.

That same year, 54 relatives and the chief engineer of the Ministry of Construction, Innovation and Employment filed complaints about both men before their professional body.

Thus began eight years of legal wrangling, with Dr. Reay fighting every step of the way to prevent the organization from investigating him.

Harding resigned from his membership in 2014, but was still found to have violated the code of ethics signed by the engineers.

A year later, Dr. Reay also resigned.

In his case, IPENZ decided that it did not have jurisdiction to continue an investigation into a non-member.

In 2018, the High Court said that he was wrong and that the investigation could continue, but again Dr. Reay defended himself and took his case to the Court of Appeal.

That court upheld the original decision, and in late 2019 the body, now known as Engineering New Zealand, restarted its investigation into whether Dr Reay should face its disciplinary committee.

Maan Alkaisi lost his wife in the collapse and is a spokesperson for the families behind the complaint.

He couldn’t understand why, 12 months later, the body still hadn’t decided what to do.

“What message [is it] they are sending young engineers when there is a case where a building collapsed, killing 115 people and after 10 years it is still up to Alan Reay and his lawyers to decide what Engineering New Zealand is [are] I’m going to do. This is really outrageous. “

Alkaisi, who was a professor of electrical engineering, noted that Dr. Reay was still working as an engineer on large commercial projects, despite the fact that there were two pending complaints against him.

He said Engineering New Zealand had lost all credibility.

“I have a lot of engineers calling me, some senior engineers, and they say this organization has proven themselves to be dysfunctional. I mean, they set the worst example. [are] Are they going to go after any engineer with any conduct after this? “

Engineering New Zealand CEO Helen Davidson said the delays were not her fault.

“These processes can take some time. And we are truly aware of the continuing grief of the people who lost loved ones in the CTV building tragedy and their need for this process to come to a conclusion. So where matters they are under our control, we will move forward as quickly as we can. There are aspects of the process that are not under our control and that relate to the collection of information from different sources. “

Davidson said there is no time limit for respondents to respond to the committee.

“Our goal is to move this forward as quickly as we can and use the levers we have. So it won’t be an indefinite process, but we need to make sure it’s fair and robust.”

Through his attorney, Dr. Reay said that as the matter was before Engineering New Zealand’s investigative committee, it was “not appropriate” to comment.

As for the CTV families, the wait for justice continues.

– RNZ