Nat party spinmeister (and Key recruiter) hired fraudster
Posted by Trevor Mallard on September 13th, 2010
The story of Stephen Wilkie Wilce who lied about his past and headed the Defence Technology Agency is causing a lot of fun for the chattering classes in Wellington.
Buried away to date is the fact that the recruitment agency that failed to check the CV (including the claims he designed the missile guidance systems for the UK’s nukes, bobsleighed at the Olympics inter alia) was Momentum, Headed by Michelle Boag well known to the National Party spin team and responsible for recruiting John Key into the National Party caucus.
It was the work of another recruitment agency, doing reference and qualifications checks in a thorough and professional manner that led to Mary-Anne Thompson being denied promotion and eventually being exposed.
And wasn’t Boag the person who was on the teams working for John Banks and recruiting supercity spin doctors for Hide at the same time.
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Trev, while deleted uneccessary. Clare over everyone remotely associated with the alleged liar, you could at least spell his name correctly.
NAT party spinmeister introduced a critical national security threat into the NZ defence infrastructure through her negligence.
This will have traction.
The man’s name is Stephen Wilce.
Firstly it was hardly “buried away”, not unless you consider coverage in all the major media buried.
But more the point, when was he hired?
Was Boag part of momentum then? I think not. Another lazy smear Trevor.
http://www.prpeople.co.nz/about_us.html
Wilce was hired during Labours term in government. Just like Thompson.
And of course Helen Clark was in charge of the SIS at the time (or was she?)and Phil Goff was Minister of defence?…the story has traction all right!
Trev why do you come up with statements that are so easily demolished by facts?
1. Boag doesn’t head Momentum.
2. Boag didn’t work at Momentum at the time Wilce was hired.
3. Wilce was hired during a Labour government.
4. Boag does not and has never hired executive government positions.
5. Boag has not worked on the recruitment of any super city executive jobs.
I don’t know if all of these facts were strange to you before Trev, but I suspect some of them were.
Oh well, looked like it could have been a good story. Damn!
Do not approve until Trevor sees it
“Nat party spinmeister (and Key recruiter) hired fraudster” in reference to Michelle Boag.
Credit where credit’s due. It takes guts to make personal and baseless allegations (proved false in the first four comments) against someone on an online blog, especially one frequented by a number of lawyers.
Richard it’s a pity Trevor didn’t look before he leapt to Standardesque conclusions.
H Fee! H Fee!
Never let the facts get in the way…
Is this an “oops” thread???
But mainstream media have been reporting that Momentum was consulted in recruiting Wilce, and that Momentum has strong links to the National Party people. Jenny Shipley is a director – when did she become a director?
But, it also seems to me that Clark has some responsibility in the recruiting of Wilce.
But I am also concerned that Momentum has responsibility for the over-hasty recruitment of supercity managers, and without sufficient democratic and transparent processes.
I’m not sure how either PM (Labour or Nat)would be responsible for the negligent research by recruitment companies?
Dont we pay these companies so the PM doesnt have to ring referees?????
Boag introduces herself on Radio NZ as head of Momentum. Just shows sloppy CV checking is not confined to the civil service (who are perhaps not experts at it), but when you pay headhunters like Momentum that really is a core part of their job.
This is much more serious than the Thompson affair – her failure to have a PhD was irrelevant to her competence, while Wilce seems to have been a complete fantasist. I am sure Boag will be finding a way to try to distance herself from this fiasco.
The government at the time has no connection to employment of people to positions below CEO level. Wilces would be unknown to the Cabinet Ministers at the time of his appointment ( as it should be)
Boag doesnt seem to be on the board of Momentum nor its CEO or either its Wellington or Auckland GM.
This doesnt make any sense, unless you dont want someones name on the door because of conflict of interest but they play a huge role behind the scenes.
However Boag is generally thought of as having the highest integrity. This would be a good chance for her to do the in house investigation.
Time for a review of all Momentum hires currently in the public and civil service – to be paid for by Momentum, of course.
Also for a review of how Defence are recruiting people.
Loota, so you want to persecute a company just because of the political allegiances of some of its staff. Spooky stuff. That’s what happened to Madeleine Setchell remember.
Of course Helen Clark wasn’t personally responsible for Wilce’s hiring by Defence five years ago. But she did have ministerial responsibility for the SIS.
There may be some responsibility with Momentum in this but Trev’s attempt to smear Boag has no foundation and he knows it. The smear reflects much more on Trev’s character than it does his target.
Recruiters are not responsible for hiring employees. They are contracted to do search and selection and do so with due diligence, including conducting reference checks. Employers (in this case MoD) are responsible for the hire, including reading the reference checks. At this stage we don’t know if any reference checks were carried out, whether they were appropriate and complete, what they said, or whether the MoD read them (as they should have).
No doubt all these issues will be included in the SSC’s inquiry. A bit early yet to start dumping on a recruitment company that did so much business under the last labour government.
Deleted. Offensive. Clare
ghost, Trev obviously doesn’t think boag has the highest integrity. Otherwise he wouldn’t have made up this baseless smear about her. It isn’t boag’s job to do an internal inquiry at momentum. The matter is now being investigated by the SSC. It’s Momentum’s job to cooperate fully with the SSC’s inquiries. Since Boag had nothing to do with the hire because she wasn’t there at the time, and has no management responsibility at momentum, she has nothing to do with the SSC’s inquiry.
Trevor – When I saw this post i laughed out loud – this guy was emloyed during a Labour Government – so who was the minister responsible at the time? You have been slapped down here by others and deservedly so – It was the slack practices under your Labour Government that led for Wilce and others to be employed in senior positions.
Certainly Momentum did drop the ball – but what about the internal checks?
so far, the only real criticism of clark and goff that makes sense , going on the lines of logic that sm and monty et al, is that they both are guilty of not being psychic.
now i would agree that is a serious failing in a politician. not being psychic that is… but i do despair of ever hearing any more than reactionary drivel based on nothing more than a desire to stand on ones hind legs and howl at the tribe on the other side of the river simply because “they ain’t us,so we must fear them, and hate them because they are different”
bbf, I think everybody agrees that something systematically went wrong with the hiring of Wilce. As for your tribal call, remember it was Trev who tried to lay the blame on Boag.
This has been the funniest thing I have read in ages.
mallard – you must have forgotten the humour tag.
sm… boag was the head of the firm who hired him… doesn’t that have any validity? or is that too obvious?
transferrence is not a realistic debating tool. it is simply misdirection.
btw.. trev pointed up the responsibility of boag as an executive of the firm responsible for what is an important position within our defense establishment.
can you answer my point with something valid please?
bbf, maybe you want to read my first comment that destroys Trev’s facts.
I’ll repeat them for you because you have swallowed Trev’s line as truth when it is far from it.
1. Boag doesn’t and has never headed Momentum. She isn’t on the board or a senior manager.
2. Boag didn’t recruit Wilce. She wasn’t even an employee at Momentum when Wilce was hired.
3. Wilce was hired under a Labour Government.
Those are the facts. Is that a good enough answer for you?
Perhaps now that we know Helen Clark, Phil, Trev etc were in charge when Mary Ann Thompson, this bloke Wilce and others were appointed to senior positions there should be an inquiry into all top office holders during the term of the last government so we can make sure such shonky appointments won’t be made again.
Trevor – it’s sad to see you trying so desperately to rake muck that doesn’t even exist. You must know you’ll be found out.
Trevor will respond when he can. In the meantime I will moderate strictly and people will be banned if they become nasty and offensive. Clare
you’re going to have to do much better than that sm. you need to get your head around the fact that you confirming your deleted offensive. Clare world view is not an actual arguement. the only thing you have destroyed is your own credibilty.
as this has been said already, i feel the need to do no more than repeat. michelle boag IS heavily involved with the recruitment process in auckland. it was widely reported(herald) during the initial super city process that she had been intimately involved in the vetting, and hiring of executives for the cco’s.
it would be helpful if people could focus their arguments on realities, not short memories.
bbfloyd,
Um, can you please point out some evidence of where Boag:
1. Is or has headed Momentum?
2. Boag was an employee at the time of Wilce’s hiring?
bbf, can you point to which of the points specifically you don’t agree with? Namely that Boag does not and has never headed momentum, that she wasn’t employed there when Wilce was hired let alone had anything to do with his hiring, and that Wilce was hired under a Labour government?
Those are all facts. You haven’t responded to them, you’ve just attacked me. Looks like you’re just a troll.
Hi clare how come my comments are moderated when I haven’t abused anyone yet straight after your comment saying you will strictly moderate bbf says I have a [all the name calling has been deleted - chris]
Five hours and 32 comments in, and not a word of rebuttal from the author. Hmmmmm…..
[all the name calling has been deleted - chris]
@ smhead, so we can take it as gospel that Ms Boag had nothing what-so-ever to do with the Supercity recruitments?
Dived in to have a look at the comments while in South Canterbury for the second time in a week. While the headline mightn’t be too flash and I relied on my impression of old Boag comments and assumed she was a principal in the firm rather than a junior employee and for that I apologise. The rest of the post stands.
Another case of a slack company with strong links to a very active part of the National spin team.
And from the response above it is clear that I have hit a nerve or three. John’s team very active this afternoon.
@smhead and @bbfloyd have moderated bbfloyd’s comment.
Just one other thing that is wrong…may as well make the whole post fact free. Michelle Boag didn’t recruit John Key. My father did.
“For Key’s part, this was the realisation of four years of effort. He had first made contact with National in 1998, thanks to his sister, Liz Cave. She worked as a receptionist at Christchurch firm Lane Walker Rudkin, where then-National Party president John Slater used to make sales calls for his textile business. One day, Cave mentioned to Slater that her brother was interested in returning to New Zealand. Slater gave her his number and told her to get Key to ring, which he duly did.
Slater invited Key to a traditional New Year’s brunch he held at his Pauanui holiday home in the first days of 1999. Key made an immediate impression, arriving with a bottle of Stonyridge Larose (recommended price $200). Slater still has the bottle: “I think we might crack it open on election night,” he says.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/john-key-the-unauthorised-biography/news/article.cfm?c_id=1502247&objectid=10523287
“… i feel the need to do no more than repeat. michelle boag IS heavily involved with the recruitment process in auckland.”
Ummmmm…. so what?
I think it has been established by smhead quite convincingly that Michelle Boag was not even part of Momentum when the hiring of Wilce took place.
Why should her involvement in the hiring of staff for Auckland be linked to this case?
Trevor Mallard said
That’s bollocks Trevor. You jumped to a conclusion that was wrong. You’ve apologised; good on you. But don’t now try to minimise the apology or justify your error by suggesting that a Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy is underway.
@Trevor – I think you hit a nerve in the same way that Bush hit a nerve with his critics when he said “I think anybody who doesn’t think I’m smart enough to handle the job is underestimating.”
GOS.. if you read the original post, then it does make the connection. and why shouldn’t it be linked? if this is the standard that this firm is working to, then how can we have any faith in the recruitment process in auckland?
this is entirely relevant to the million and a half people having to live with a new regime that may, or may not work out for the best. faith in the processes used to implement these massive changes to the way we are administered can only be undermined if the process is shown to be flawed from the beginning.
if you wish to check claims made re boags involvement in this process, then i suggest you go to the herald itself. apologies for not being able to supply a link to make it simpler, but i have to admit to being a neophite when it comes to computers and the internet.
and, by the way, simply making a statement and calling it fact does not actually translate into reality. that would qualify as sm’s intellectual property, and his alone.
Oliver, didn’t he say ‘misunderestimating’.
@ Whaleoil, thanks for the clarification. That explains how access was gained to his text messages.
that bush.. he was nothing if not versitill.
“GOS.. if you read the original post, then it does make the connection. and why shouldn’t it be linked?”
Ummmmmm….. You may very well have a case with Momentum, however I wouldn’t know what they did or didn’t do at this stage. But you are trying to link this potential stuff up with someone who wasn’t even involved in the company at the time it was made which is nonsensical.
It would be like trying to say that a member of one political party in government is responsible for the decisions made under the last government when they weren’t in office. Oh wait a minute…..