RDC Forced to Admit Fault After Ombudsman Ruling after 14 months of OIA's

After 14 months of investigating and raising concerns with the Ruapehu District Council and its councillors over inaccurate statistics reported in their 2022/2023 Annual Report, the Council has finally admitted fault.

Despite repeated requests through multiple Official Information Act (OIA) requests, we only obtained the raw data after escalating the matter to the Ombudsman. This data clearly confirmed our concerns: the survey statistics cited in the Annual Report were misrepresented.

The Ombudsman confirmed in May this year that the statistics were incorrectly stated, however it has taken until today for Ruapehu District Council to publicly admit fault.

Today, the Council has issued a public notice acknowledging the error:

• Public Notice: https://www.ruapehudc.govt.nz/our-council/public-notices

For background, here is a detailed breakdown of our reporting on the issue, including the flawed Annual Report, the raw data, and our correspondence with the Council and councillors prior to their vote to accept the report:

• Our Reporting: https://www.saveohakune.com/post/rdc-survey-results-wrong-in-annual-report

• FYI Request (OIA): https://fyi.org.nz/request/26824-survey-results-how-are-we-doing?unfold=1

• Email to Council & Councillors attached below, requesting they validate the results before signing off on the Annual Report

Given the significance of this – both for ratepayers and for public trust in Council reporting; we believe this is a matter of public interest.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you require further comment or clarification.

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Barry Murphy

President https://ORS.nz