17202 (2026). Tangi Utikere to the Minister of Transport

17202 (2026). Tangi Utikere to the Minister of Transport: Further to Replies 13170 and 13376 (2026), (a) on what specific evidentiary basis, and by whom, was the determination made that 37 of the 498 impacted conversions were the result of administrative error rather than fraud; (b) were any of those 37 cases originally identified or recorded as potentially fraudulent before being reclassified; and (c) given that the 37 individuals were subjected to the same testing requirements as those classified as fraudulent, what operational or regulatory consequence did the classification have, if any?

Hon Chris Bishop: NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) advises me that all overseas conversion applications (OVCs) and responses to NZTAs requirement for certificates evidencing validity for individuals within the cohort were examined in detail by NZTA’s Regulatory Performance, Risk & Insights team. It was determined that these licences were converted to the wrong class because of an administrative error in either of the following situations: • The overseas certificate provided (both with the original overseas conversion application and later in response to NZTA’s notice) was valid and matched the UAE Ministry of Interior’s verification records, but the New Zealand licence was converted to a higher class than NZTA rules allow for UAE licences. • NZTA could not locate the original overseas conversion file held by its storage provider, but the certificate later provided was valid and matched the UAE Ministry of Interior’s verification records; however, the New Zealand licence was still converted to a higher class than NZTA rules allow for UAE licences. These 37 cases were reviewed as part of the full cohort to check for fraudulent or false information. However, none of the 37 were found to have provided fraudulent or falsified information at any stage of the audit. These individuals were provided with the same opportunity to retain the higher class of licence as those that were found to have provided fraudulent or falsified information, which therefore resulted in the same consequences.