Dear Ministry of Economic Development,

I have concerns about your ministry and its practices.

Please find my OIA questions listed as follows:

I have used your Companies' website ( https://companies-register.companiesoffi...) search menu to find that many companies/trust registered in New Zealand advertise using different names publicly, which is not the same as their registered company/trust name. Please inform me of who regulates these companies/trust under your ministry to be sure that they are following the Fair Trading Act 1986 and other related laws of New Zealand and internationally, to hold current and valid information on their company/trust profiles to be correct?

I have seen registered companies/trusts on your Companies website (https://companies-register.companiesoffi...), whether they be charitable or not, to have outdated information on them and not to include actual signatories on their company's/trust's profile who are supposed to be active members. Can you please inform me of who the person is at your ministry who oversees this sort of information? In other words, who monitors your website to be sure that companies/trusts registered in New Zealand are following the New Zealand Acts, Laws and Bills, to actually exist as a valid registered company/trust under your ministry?

I have seen legal persons place their name on a company/trust profile on your website but not include their signatory information of when they actually became a confirmed member to be able to verify their actual legal involvement. Who is in-charge of monitoring this information at your ministry?

I have witnessed legal persons of company/trust profiles remove old documents on your website to potentially hide factual or historical data of their members on their company/trust profile. Who monitors this information on your website (https://companies-register.companiesoffi...) to be sure that companies/trusts are not making errors or miscarriages or potentially committing acts of fraud or deceit to members of the public on their company's/trust's profile?

Please inform me of how the Ministry of Economic Development monitors company/trust profiles on your website? Who is in charge of this?

Where can a member of the public request information for companies/trusts who have removed information from their company/trust profile that can be evidenced as being on their profile before removal? Who monitors this information at your ministry, please?

Please inform me of who the person is at your ministry who monitors inactive companies/trusts on your website. I see some companies/trusts on your website remaining inactive for a number of years and still being allowed to remain current on your website despite this. Who monitors these inactive companies/trusts at your ministry on your website?

When a charity has been deregistered on the Charities Services website, how long does it take your ministry to receive this information and deregister them from your Companies' website (https://companies-register.companiesoffi...)? In the past, I have witnessed charities that have been deregistered from the Charities Services website and then fairly quickly removed from your Companies' website (https://companies-register.companiesoffi...). However, a charity in particular which I am unable to mention in this request has still not been deregistered from your Companies' website for nearly one year, although it has been deregistered from Charities Services. Can you please refer me to the person at your ministry who is in-charge of investigating these types of matters when their is potentially charity fraud involved as an indication of their de-registration?

For acts of charity fraud by charitable trusts registered on your website, which government branches does your ministry involve itself with for these sorts of investigations to take place?

Please inform me of how your ministry regulates the names of persons being claimed as members of charitable trusts. Does your ministry require legal names of persons to be used who make-up a company/trust or do you accept non-legal names to register a company/trust?

I know of a case where a nonlegal name was used and your ministry actually induced false representation by legally validating their contracts using a non-legal name. Please inform me of who is in-charge at your ministry of the legality of contracts and persons name used on contracts to be legally valid when provided to your ministry to be processed for approval to obtain donor status and benefits for charitable purposes in New Zealand?

Does your ministry require legal identifications to be used for these companies or trusts when they submit their applications to you?

After 2012, your ministry for some reason stopped requiring charitable trusts to obtain charity status through your agency before obtaining this status through Charities Services, which was a common practice in the past. Can you please inform me of when this change was made by law and reference the act in which this change has been confirmed by the New Zealand Government as effective?

Please inform me of when a lawyer/barrister initially signs for company/trust under your ministry and that lawyer/barrister stops being active within that company/trust, does your ministry allow them to remain inactive? If so, how long? Is there a time period of a lawyer's inactivity for a company./trust that would prevent the lawyer who initially signed-off on a company/trust to be unable to claim property for that company/trust in the future? If so, please reference this period or law under your ministry and the act in which it was decided by the New Zealand Government.

Who at your ministry is in-charge of monitoring lawyers/barristers who initially sign for companies/trusts to remain active members or not?

I am unable to ask one question at a time. I apologize but due to the practices and policies of your ministry, I have encountered a significant amount of errors and miscarriages and other related matters due to inadequate monitoring of companies/trusts/charitable trusts in New Zealand overall.

As any OIA request can take up to 21 days to be fulfilled or responded to, please respond to mine accordingly, if not before.

I require all legal names to be fully disclosed by the person responding and initials or initialing another person's response to my OIA request will be unacceptable. All names must be legal persons or entities. I require the New Zealand Government to follow international standards of letters and documents. I will require the original document signed in response to this request to be mailed to me with the physical signature. I am unable to place my address on this document due to public posting and safety reasons.

Please provide to me a contact number for your ministry of someone who I can directly contact so that I can have a signed letter in response to this OIA request be mailed to me accordingly with physical signature because it is required for legal purposes. An electronic copy will not be satisfactory but only for this platform.

I hold Mr/Hon David Parker, the Attorney General of New Zealand, accountable for any lack of information provided to me for my OIA request in this letter.

Thank you for your time and attention to this matter.

Cordially,

C. A., of the family Mattheiss
Without prejudice.