A botched botchup

Newshub reports:

The investigation into how Budget-sensitive material was accessed from Treasury by the National Party has been terminated over an undeclared “conflict of interest”.
State Services Commissioner Peter Hughes announced on Wednesday that the current investigation’s integrity has been “compromised” and a new one will take its place. …

The commissioner said in a statement he had the option of continuing the investigation but he was not prepared to risk any possibility of compromise.
“Starting the investigation again is the right thing to do,” Hughes said. “Near enough is not good enough when it comes to integrity.”
Hughes has appointed Jenn Bestwick to lead the fresh investigation, which will commence immediately and report back in February.
He said the expected total cost of the inquiry, including the new investigation, will be completed within or near the original budget of $250,000.
National’s finance spokesperson Paul Goldsmith said it’s “more evidence of a bumbling Government that botched the Budget by having details leaked, and now has botched the investigation”. 

The loser in all this is of course the taxpayer.