15214 (2025). Hon Willow-Jean Prime to the Associate Minister of Education

15214 (2025). Hon Willow-Jean Prime to the Associate Minister of Education: Did the Centrix business credit checks undertaken by officials identify whether the Libelle director had previously been a director of a company that had gone into liquidation previously; and if so, was any advice provided on this?

Hon David Seymour: Compass Group NZ sub-contracted Libelle as a member of the School Lunch Collective and was responsible for the management of their sub-contracted parties. The Centrix business credit checks the Ministry of Education (the Ministry) undertook during the procurement of the alternate provision model, as part of preliminary financial due diligence on Libelle and other short-listed suppliers, did not raise any red flags. At that stage of the due diligence process, the Ministry was primarily looking for indicators supporting the need for further financial checks. A robust financial analysis was undertaken by KPMG on Compass Group NZ as they were the lead supplier the Ministry was contracting with.