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OPINION

We were warned a report was coming out on Wellington Water.

Not even people in the media or on our councils thought the report was going to be this scathing. There is a lot of shock around Wellington right now.

And we’ve always suspected it, but now we know just how bad Wellington Water has been managing our pipes and our money.

The entire report can be summed up in two lines.

The first; we are being fleeced.

The second; the management of Wellington Water has sat back and allowed it to happen.

The headline out of this report is that ratepayers in the region are paying nearly three times more for unplanned pipe maintenance compared to other cities like Hamilton and Christchurch.

Three times more. And no one seemed to bat an eyelid.

Contractors have been creaming it because the management of Wellington Water is clearly just spraying money around.

All while our rates skyrocket, almost solely because of the huge sums we're told need to be invested in water.

And the crazy thing is, we don’t know how much this fleecing has cost us.

Wellington Water chair Nick Leggett said yesterday it's in the millions - but we don't know any more than that.

And it’s not just about the cost. The report also highlights a lack of oversight and the possibility for staff to commit fraud. One alleged case of fraud has been found, with Police now investigating.

At the centre of all this is Wellington Water’s chairman, Nick Leggett, who has apologised and is now “pausing for thought” about whether he stays in his job.

Leggett admits that Wellington Water has failed to deliver value for money and acknowledges that concerns raised by staff and council shareholders were not listened to sooner.

But is an apology enough?

I'm not going to call for Leggett to go. Let the water settle first. He's only been in the position for less than two years, but let's get to the bottom of what's happened first.

Some are calling for him to go; Upper Hutt Mayor Wayne Guppy has been direct, saying "heads have got to go".

But Porirua Mayor Anita Baker has pushed back, calling talk of resignations “absolutely stupid” and praising Leggett and new CEO Pat Dougherty for driving changes.

And let's be honest, this is an issue that goes way beyond Nick Leggett or the current leadership.

This has been happening for years. We have been fleeced for years.

Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has also weighed in, demanding answers from the board and leadership about how this situation was allowed to develop over such a long period.

And she’s right. How can something like this happen?

What other organisation pays bills three times more expensive than everyone else without noticing?

Why was there no deep dive earlier?

Wellington Water has been in the headlines constantly. remember the fluoridation debacle? Or the $51 million budget error that slipped through the cracks?

It’s completely dysfunctional. And the Prime Minister said as much yesterday.

“A unique corruption" he called it.

And let’s not forget the bigger picture here.

Wellingtonians are paying the price for these failures. People are leaving this city because they can’t afford it.

How are those people feeling today?

This is a mammoth scandal.

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