Police are being called in to investigate former Immigration Service head Mary-AnneThompson who has quit amid claims she assisted members of her family from Kiribati to gain New Zealand residency.  

Prime Minister Helen Clark confirmed from Japan last night that the State Services Commission would be referring aspects of the case that led to Ms Thompson's resignation to the police.

The Dominion Post reported today that "serious questions" have been raised about qualifications claimed by Ms Thompson, including her widely reported PhD from the London School of Economics.

"Ms Thompson did not claim that she had a doctorate when she was appointed to her deputy secretary position," Deputy State Services Commissioner Iain Rennie said in a statement.

Ms Thompson resigned from her position on Tuesday and it was announced yesterday by her boss, Labour Department chief executive Christopher Blake.

Thompson has been at the centre of a controversy over preferential treatment given to residence applications from her relatives in Kiribati.

Miss Clark told NZPA the case had been investigated by the department's previous chief executive who had commissioned a report that had not led to Ms Thompson's dismissal, but she had obviously decided herself that it was time to go.

"Obviously there were grounds for unease."

Miss Clark did not see the controversy as damaging to the Government because Ms Thompson had worked under both Labour and National governments.

Acting Prime Minister Michael Cullen said the immigration minister knew in April last year about Ms Thompson helping family members, but took no action because an inquiry was about to be undertaken at that time.

Ministers also did not act after the inquiry because the matters raised in the report had been employment matters for the chief executive to deal with, he said.

National immigration spokesman Lockwood Smith said Immigration Minister Clayton Cosgrove and his predecessor David Cunliffe had both known about claims levelled at Ms Thompson "but it took a full year for the serious allegations to find their way into the public arena".
 
Mr Cosgrove had previously said he found out before Christmas.

Mr Blake said Ms Thompson had resigned "in the interests of the department and the wider public service."

In an internal email, Mr Blake told staff he hoped the resignation would bring an end to the matter but warned them to refrain from commenting to anyone outside the department, "especially to journalists".

Ms Thompson helped family members from Kiribati complete New Zealand residence forms and an inquiry discovered that immigration officials were instructed by managers to override policy when dealing with them.

The State Services Commission is investigating how the applications were approved and how the case was handled.

Three family members were granted residency despite their applications being too late and the quota for Kiribati being filled.

A staff member was reprimanded for approving the application without the correct authority, but Ms Thompson was found not to have been involved.

Dr Smith says it "beggars belief" that two government ministers knew about the serious allegations and failed to ask any questions whatsoever.

Yesterday in Parliament, Dr Cullen rejected Dr Smith's suggestion that ministers had been "complicit" in an attempted cover-up of repeated breaches of immigration policy by departmental managers.

"No, the matter related to individual employees and therefore is a matter of responsibility of the chief executive," Dr Cullen said.

Dr Smith said later it had clearly been in the public interest for the allegations to have been made public at the earliest opportunity.

"The fact that Labour sat on them for a year will serve to reinforce public perceptions of a shabby cover-up," he said.

Ms Thompson has been a high flier in the public service holding senior positions in Treasury and the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.



NZPA