Police hire sacked engineering firm to not look at fake engineer:

The NZ Police have announced that they are hiring an engineering firm, Beca, to help them decide who is responsible for the collapse of the CTV building in the Christchurch earthquakes.  One hundred and fifteen people were killed when the building collapsed.

Detective Superintendent Peter Read says police have contacted Beca to give its expert opinion on engineering issues raised in the ongoing assessment.

He says the review is the next phase of the police assessment, which follows on from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission.

While the findings of the royal commission were helpful, it did not make any determination of who is liable for the building's collapse, Det Supt Read says.

I'm not the only one to question this.  Maan Alkaisi, who lost his wife in the CTV building collapse, is a Professor of Engineering at Canterbury University. Appearing on Firstline this morning, he said there was enough evidence presented at the royal commission for the police to lay a charge.

"If you have followed the royal commission hearings and the reports from experts, it's not hard to pinpoint what exactly went wrong with that building," says Prof Alkaisi.

"It's really very clear to us how this building collapsed, why this building collapsed and who is responsible for that."


The former construction manager of the deadly Canterbury Television building, Gerald Shirtcliff, stole the identity of a professional engineer and faked an engineering degree. 

Shirtcliff stole the identity of an English engineer called William Anthony Fisher in 1970.  He had worked with Fisher in South Africa in 1968 and 1969. Shirtcliff has lived as William Fisher in Australia for over 25 years, he now resides in Brisbane, driving a late-model Mercedes and enjoying a spacious house and a $200,000 motor launch.

When Shirtcliff left South Africa towards the end of 1969 to settle in Sydney he took on Fisher's identity including his birthplace, birthdate and his Bachelor of Engineering degree from the University of Sheffield.

Shirtcliff then used the real Will Fisher's BEng to gain entry into a masters programme at the University of New South Wales in 1971 and also to become a member of the Australian Institute of Engineers in 1972.

He later worked as an engineer for a Sydney firm, then called MacDonald, Wagner and Priddle (to become Connell Wagner and then Aurecon), before returning to New Zealand in the mid-80s, to work under his Shirtcliff name.

In New Zealand he purported to be a "registered" engineer and at one time a "chartered" engineer.

Shirtcliff used his new identity on company documents and also to try to avoid extradition to New Zealand on the fraud allegations. He spent a week in a Brisbane jail in 2003 before conceding he was actually Gerald Shirtcliff.

Shirtcliff, now 67, supervised the construction of the CTV building, which was finished in 1987 and collapsed on February 22 last year, killing 115 people when Christchurch was hit by an earthquake.  He gave evidence at the commission hearings, but was revealed later that he had stolen the identity and forged the qualification.  Despite calls for the commission to be reopened this was refused.

So that's Gerald Shirtcliff, now, what about Beca?  Well let's have a look at the secret deal done between Beca and the Masterton District Council over the Homebush sewage plant for a start.

Beca admitted to culpability for a "bombshell" they dropped on Masterton ratepayers in 2011, a six million dollar error in their quote for the sewage works.  ""Inaccurate advice" was how it was described, and amount of their underestimation was $6.6 million dollars.  It was announced that this would cost ratepayers - to the tune of a 19% rates rise.

The Masterton District Council blustered on about taking legal action, after strong pressure from the community.  They sought legal advice from a Queens Counsel - and I wonder what that advice cost them (will be making enquiries, watch this space), and claimed to have initiated action of some sort although there is no evidence of that.

Beca were sacked for this, and replaced with a more competent firm.  The project has been an utter disaster for ratepayers, running well behind schedule and "contractual difficulties" led to thirteen people's jobs being cut.

Finally, in October 2012, Masterton Mayor Gary Daniell announced that a secret deal had been reached with Beca.  Other councillors were outraged that the deal was so secret event that even they didn't know about it.  Makes a mockery of the tender process, that's for sure - Beca knew full well they couldn't do it for the price they quoted!

One hundred and fifteen people died when the CTV building collapsed, and the Police are hiring an engineering company who are clearly dishonest AND incompetent, to 'help' them decide who's responsible?  - What a joke!  - What an INSULT to the tax payers of NZ!