A damning report for Paul Eagle

The Auditor-General has reported on expenditure by the Chatham Islands Council while Paul Eagle was CEO, and it is damning.

The Council owns a house that it rents to the Chief Executive as part of the employment package. By 2022, maintenance work on the house was overdue. …

The incoming Chief Executive requested additional works after he inspected the house in late 2023. The former Chief Executive then requested an increased budget of $500,000 in October 2023, which the Council approved. The Chief Executive took over managing the project when he started in the role and sought further changes to the scope of the work.

$500k on a house renovation is massive. But for the Chatham Islands Council it is over 10% of its annual budget – just on renovating the CEs house!

The Chief Executive provided documents to our Office that gave an inaccurate record of certain events and when they happened

This is very serious. They were:

• quotes and contracts for work on the project to upgrade the Chief Executive’s house that appeared to be from the builder, but which the Chief Executive had edited or created;
• procurement memorandums that were dated in 2024 but had been created by the Chief Executive after June 2025; and
• a contract variation with a supplier that the Chief Executive had edited to state an incorrect variation date.

Wow.

We consider that the Chief Executive’s actions were unacceptable and demonstrated exceptionally poor practice and judgement. We have not reached a view on the legality of the Chief Executive’s actions. In this case, we consider it sufficient to draw the Council, Parliament, and the public’s attention to the matter.

The Auditor-General often speaks diplomatically. Here they do not pull their punches.

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