As stated by Assistant Commissioner, Deployment and Road Policing, Bruce O'Brien:
Police acknowledges the findings by the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) in today's report into a contract for heavy vehicle recovery on the Auckland motorways and the lack of monitoring around that contract.
The IPCA initiated the report following a complaint from another heavy vehicle towing company (Company X) that questioned the integrity of the tender process for awarding the contract, and raised concerns regarding compliance over the last eight years.
Company Y is contracted by New Zealand Police to remove broken-down heavy vehicles from the Auckland motorways.
Police is addressing the concerns highlighted in the report, including a national audit of heavy vehicle towing contracts to ensure best practice and compliance.
We accept that this was not good enough and not up to Police's usual high standard of managing contracts.
Waka Kotahi manages the regulatory requirements for these large recovery vehicles, and Police is responsible for monitoring the commercial vehicle industry.
The contract awarded to Company Y was conditional upon regular inspections being conducted by Police - these inspections did not occur.
We acknowledge the importance of removing heavy motor vehicles from the road and understand the potential impact failing to inspect these vehicles could have on road users.
Police will ensure going forward that there is a focus on the compliance of heavy vehicle towing contractors to ensure the safety of all road users.
The complaint raised concerns regarding a donation offered to Police by Company Y during their bid for the contract.
Police does not accept the finding by the IPCA that the offer of a donation should have been removed from Company Y's tender document and their application resubmitted.
The donation was not accepted, and the offer was not a contributing factor in the score which resulted in awarding the contract with Company Y.
The Authority found that Police were at times incorrectly overruling the driver/owner's choice of recovery operator.
Police has since developed appropriate guidelines to deal with the driver/owner's choice of operator.
Police continues to use Company Y for heavy vehicle towing on the Auckland Motorway with the exception of vehicles in excess of 36,000kg.
A letter was sent by Police to Company Y outlining concerns regarding the company's capacity to tow loads of more than this weight.
Police will not use this company for towing heavy vehicles with a weight in excess of 36,000kg until the matter is resolved - an independent engineer has been engaged to assess this. The findings will be shared with the Authority in the near future.
Annual audits of Company Y's fleet will be conducted in alignment with the contractual obligations.
The Authority found that Police has been interpreting and exercising its powers under section 113(2) and (d) of the Land Transport Act 1998 incorrectly.
The Commercial Vehicle Safety Team (CVST) has recently developed and circulated guidelines regarding the interpretation and application of s113 to ensure this is understood and applied correctly by staff.
We would like to apologise to Company X for failing to properly address the initial complaint.
In retrospect, we also acknowledge that the officer who did eventually investigate the complaint should have been a different investigator to ensure impartiality.
A process was introduced last year that involves supervisors from different CVST areas investigating complaints, to ensure impartiality and mitigate conflict of interest risks.
Police agree with the Authority's finding regarding Police use of the VDAM (Vehicle Dimensions and Mass 2016) rule - this is a matter for the courts to rule on.
New Zealand Police and Waka Kotahi (NZ Transport Agency) continue to work closely together on matters of road safety.
