Dear Prime Minister and all MP’S,
Please bear in mind that the PGDB do not deny any of my accusations below, I find that very concerning. As should those copied in. The PGDB are happy to not address this corruption for nearly 15 years. They have literally refused to talk about a near fatal explosion that no one to this day has been held to account, ignoring blatant firm evidence. Please see my open letter to the PGDB and their reply refusing to talk about it, attached.
And worse…apparently not concerned what the industry thinks of this either, please see a link below with over 160 thousand views on a Plumbing/Gasfitting industry specific forum, link below.
https://www.plumbers.nz/fellow-practitioners-update/41/fellow-practitioner-issue-236-dated-12-december-2014/1810/msg13203#msg13203 Please see DOL report 5072550, re Milton Street Chip shop explosion in Nelson, a near fatal explosion in April 2009.
In the DOL report 5072550. It mentions it was me who warned for 6 years prior to the explosion. Warning that there were dodgy certs covering dangerous work. I could not have been more accurate. But I was targeted, terrorised and was subjected to a pre-determined witch-hunt. The problem with corruption is it is like rot in a building, if it isn’t removed it spreads and infects the sound structure of that building.
My wife was terrorised with child sexual abuse case notes to prove a point on probabilities. Sent just before we were forced to sell our home. Emma spent a whole winter living in a caravan with my sons, 3 and 5 years old. Emptying the cassette toilet waste and filling up on drinking water at the local i-site in front of the people we used to serve with our business, done while I was forced to work away. I have worked away since within my trade and taken work out of my trade to work from home. One of these jobs was at the local power station, I was made redundant from. Co-incidentally a short time after bumping into Mr Bickers, who was on my panel at the hearing and later the chair of the PGDB, the same person who slated me in the local newspaper after going 95% innocent of 44 charges. Saying I had brought the industry into disrepute and that I had said I was a “mere plumber”, but no one can show where I said this.
The last charge is totally unfounded. Interestingly, in another home the PGDB told the occupants to close their window to avoid fumes. This other appliance was far more closed in than the one they accused me of and the owner of this home said he had never smelt fumes. There is an alternative standard that proves I did no wrong.
My business was ruined by official PGDB letters full of untruths (apparently I am not to refer to them as lies) The one attached to the local high school did the most damage. These prejudicing untrue letters were sent to every site of charges (except the site of the explosion).
Stating that I was issuing illegal certs in in the North Island, in places I have never even visited, let alone worked.
The actual person who was doing this in these areas in my letters was apparently selling blank certs, he kept his license until his son was gifted his certifying license in the same manner as my old boss. I have an official reply from the PGDB that this case is still before the Board and as far as I know no action has been taken. This situation generated the story below in blue.
"Hundreds of homes and businesses have been fitted with potentially illegal and dangerous gas connections which authorities say could put people at risk of fire or poisoning.
Police and Government authorities are investigating the alleged scam in which more than 570 blank safety certificates were signed by a registered gasfitter, then sold to up to eight unqualified tradesmen who carried out work in Auckland and Northland.
The alleged fraud went on for nearly three years until a homeowner noticed her gas certificate looked bogus and laid a complaint with the Plumbers, Gasfitters and Drainlayers Board in July.
The Government licensing body launched an inquiry and discovered the scale of the alleged offending.
An urgent audit of more than 370 commercial premises and private homes found more than 90 per cent failed to meet compliance tests, with 16 found to be dangerous or unsafe.
More than 200 certificates are still missing and the board has issued an alert to the public to help trace the unlicensed work.
Energy Safety, part of the Ministry of Economic Development, and the Department of Labour are also investigating the potentially explosive gas fittings. A complaint has also been laid with police.
John Debernardo, the gasfitter board spokesman, said the 570 certificates were a small fraction of the 100,000 issued during the three-year period.
While most were technical breaches and the number of potentially lethal gas leaks found were small, he urged anyone with information to come forward.
"Gas is a fuel that has the potential to create danger or pose a health and safety risk. This is a serious matter," said Mr Debernardo.
The internal investigation would be completed in a few weeks and a disciplinary hearing was likely for the gasfitter at the centre of the audit.
Criminal charges were also possible for the man signing the blank certificates and those who paid money for them.
"As a gas industry spokesman, I'm ashamed of what these guys have done," said Mr Debernardo.
To compound matters, gas connections done by an unlicensed worker are not covered by insurance.
Mr Debernardo said the audit had cost taxpayers $250,000 so far, a figure likely to rise to $500,000.
He would also report back to the board with a review of the gas-fitting certificate system to see if changes needed to be made.
Mark Wogan, of Energy Safety, said the audit found six homes and 10 businesses in Auckland were dangerous or unsafe. The immediate focus was on public safety".
Mr Debernardo sat in on my interviews, as a trainee investigator, with Hammond the PGDB investigator. Mr Debarnado has since sadly passed away.
The 44 trumped up charges, 50% of which were amended (altered to fit better) two weeks out from my hearing, amended after a two year "investigation".
All the sites of my charges (other than the site of the near fatal explosion) were investigated by Casey Inspection Service LTD. The same firm who put a claim in for auditing me at 8 point road, after I told him it was a cert I had handed back when I left Allgas years before. Handed back as it was dodgy (look at the dates, the explosion was in April 2009). Same firm who had their services cancelled because they were needlessly failing audits to claim the $150 re-audit fee. Look at the mess on this cert accepted by the PGDB below and the receipt for services rendered (which they were not) in 2005. I had been complaining about these certs since 2003.
During my inquisition, evidence was most definitely withheld and misrepresented...evidence that confirmed my claims and previous warnings, warnings made 6 years before someone nearly got killed in an explosion.
Huge conflicts of interest were ignored, it took several people to do this, not just the so called "impartial" investigator. Impartial he was not. Isn’t that the definition of a conspiracy?
This investigator. Hammond, who granted Darnley (my old boss) his full certifying gasfitting license after just one oral exam (basically a chat). The investigator being the same who lobbied for gas industry deregulation (a huge mistake) and pushed for (if not implemented) the self-certifying system, the same guy who turned up to my interview with pink paper (the colour of the top copy, which was then carbon copied in triplicate) with plain black ink photo copies, thus hiding all the different colour inks (red, green, black and blue) of altered/added information. Does he sound Impartial to you? In interview he said, I should make sure my house is in order before dobbing people in and that the system was too big to fail. But the system has failed.
My last charge was upheld because I was prevented from producing a British Standard at my High Court appeal, this standard totally exonerated me… but basically because of the investigators' (and PGDB’S) ignorance of this standard... I am guilty? guilty of what?
Evidence was ignored that implicates other people, at least 9 people of interest. Work offensive enough to ruin my business/reputation and terrorising my wife, but not offensive enough to pursue the actual guilty. The PGDB have Wal's 72 page report, please see attached, but the PGDB do nothing. As per usual Wal has done all the hard work for the PGDB...but it's beyond just laziness.
One of these people of interest (Darnley my old boss) still goes protected from a charge he actually faced for the explosion, but this charge magically disappeared before his hearing AND THE PGDB DO NOT DENY THIS!!!
Of Note, Darnley handed in his resignation to the New Zealand Institute of Gas Engineers in May 2009, the explosion was in April 2009, weeks earlier, if not days. NZIGE is an arm of IPENZ…who Bickers and Hammond are members.
It is so ridiculous that someone admitted that he had cut away parts of the hose just before the explosion, as per the DOL report, but nothing happened to him.
Also in the DOL report a complete lack of maintenance. I ask you in all honesty … if the brakes on your car fail after six years of zero maintenance, do you blame the garage where you bought it? But I was subjected to two years of unjustified persecution.
Someone altered my work, lowering the pipe to the floor, resulting in the hose rupturing once BEFORE, the second hose (sold after I left Allgas, by Allgas) is the one that caused the explosion, photos of my original fixing screw holes were withheld by the investigator. Interestingly, the photos from the DOL report were used by the investigator in his correspondence with me, so he had the name of the person who the owner said installed the fryers and the exploding hose.
Is natural justice served when I am forced to lie to get a job, ironically protecting the corrupt ? Most times if I am honest I don't make the paper sift, so I am forced to lie, then it inevitable comes out and causes resentment.
I have been severely persecuted and harassed, but the atrocious handling of the cert system by the PGDB, accepting incomplete certs… filled out with different colour ink, gets zero action?.
Of Note see below...the "15" the day of signing off the test for leaks is in a different colour ink to the 06 and 03...this is on the explosion cert ...really? that’s ok !!!.... same blue ink as is HALF the info for the exploding fryers, see below, the rest is in black...the idiot who did this did not have the sense (nor care) to use the same colour ink for the dodgy additions...there are a lot of these. I have the copies if anyone wants to see them...these are the type of people the PGDB stand by and protect ?
Shame on you, please table this email to the PGDB. I just want to ensure they are aware of the blatant corruption the PGDB are standing by and covering up…Please correct me at any point that I have wrong.
There is so much more to this, it needs to be shown for what it is, a witch-hunt carried out with real Health and Safety risks to the NZ public, covering up an explosion that nearly ended in a death. If it had happened an hour either side, it would have injured, even killed school kids on the way to school or patrons/staff at the pub next door having smoko.
It wasn't just the work of the investigator, there are several people who did this, literally a conspiracy.
Conspiracy… Noun… a secret plan by a group to do something unlawful or harmful.
Believe me these actions were harmful, and in all probability illegal (at least is should be). The record should show that I am an innocent man, but the PGDB’s legacy is one of protecting corruption. Where are the news reporters whose job it is to out this kind of wrong doing. Helping to protect the innocent and the Kiwi public?
If this gets swept under the carpet...will it help or hinder? Will it give the corrupts a green light to carry on regardless?
The PGDB remind me of a flock of geese, the one's at the front of the V change periodically, but the flock head in the same predetermined direction.
Of Note....The PGDB have stopped publishing the minutes for their hearings...I am told to save room...several pages of A4 of data a month...room saved in this day and age digitally...I'll say that again...to save room. A year's worth of these minutes wouldn't fill a divider in a draw in a filing cabinet.
The one set of minutes I requested generated 16 pages of A4. Three attachments of 119KB, 104KB and 284 KB....507KB space saved DIGITALLY … Interestingly these documents sent to me had more redactions than a document leak on a JFK assassination press release, it is a crap joke. I am told by the PGDB that these redactions are to protect people's privacy ...but whole sections are blanked out, not just people’s identities.
To quote...."Sorry Paul, I put you wrong about why the Board meeting minutes were no longer published on the website" and "they were removed to allow us to use the space for other information about the Board”…500KB per month or 6MB of digital “space” per year, sounds a bit odd. Does this scream transparency and openness???
People tend to act with impunity, because they can. And do not stop until they can't.
Yours with Integrity
Paul Gee
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