Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield was then briefed and COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins was told ahead of a 1pm press conference that day. But the Government didn t tell the public until six days later despite being repeatedly questioned about it by media and MPs.
The fact the border worker hadn t been tested for five months wasn t revealed to the public until April 14, when Carolyn Tremain, chief executive of the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), told a parliamentary committee.
The Government is coming under fire for sitting on the information for six days, but Ardern says the delay was necessary due to a mismatch in what the testing data showed and what the border worker had told them.
The government does not have figures on how much contractor and consultants pay rates have been going up.
Officials who are in charge of monitoring what departments and agencies pay contractors could not provide figures for the increase in rates in recent years. (File image).
Photo: 123RF
It says it is keeping a close eye and will stop the rates they charge from rising, at the same time as it enforces a three-year pay freeze on public servants earning more than $60,000 to rein-in Covid-related debt.
However, officials who are in charge of monitoring what departments and agencies pay contractors, could not provide figures for the increase in rates in recent years.
It is obviously quite difficult when an individual as we ve been advised has lied about being tested, Ardern told Parliament in April, drawing gasps from the Opposition benches.
But it turns out the Government wasn t totally upfront about the case either, and is now facing L bomb allegations of its own. It looks like a case of lying by omission, National MP Chris Bishop told Newshub. The ministers were asked direct questions about this case and they just were not up front with the public.
Case B hadn t been tested since November last year.
A parliamentary question has revealed the Government knew about the five-month lag for six whole days before telling the public, and that s despite being repeatedly grilled about when the last test was.