Ugland House in the Cayman Islands was the reportedly home of 12,000 corporations. Unions Wellington spokesperson Ashok Jacob, top left, raised questions about the alleged tax haven status while Wellington mayor Tory Whanau was open to bringing services in-house.

By Tom Hunt From The Post

A group calling for the Wellington City Council to look at bringing contracted services in-house has confirmed two key contractors are ultimately owned in an alleged Caribbean tax haven.

Unions Wellington, which led the campaign to stop the Wellington City Council from selling its 34% airport stake, dug through all 21 current council contracts and found that rubbish and recycling collection company Envirowaste and facilities management company OCS are ultimately owned in the Cayman Islands.

While the two companies have separate ultimate holding companies, both have a registered office and shared post office box number: Box 309, Ugland House, George Town, Cayman Islands.

Cayman Islands comes only after the The British Virgin Islands on the Corporate Tax haven Index and Oxfam International in 2020 called it “one of the world’s most notorious tax havens”. However, that was when the Council of the European Union removed it from its tax haven blacklist.

The Guardian reported Barack Obama, while running for the US Presidency, cited the Ugland House address – housing 12,000 corporations – as “either the biggest building or the biggest tax scam on record”. He reiterated the claim while in office in 2009.

Unions Wellington is this week launching its campaign for the council to review all ongoing contracts to investigate the viability of bringing them in house. It is asking all Wellington mayoral candidates to commit to a review when it hosts a Living Wage Election Forum on Wednesday.

Unions Wellington spokesperson Ashok Jacob said there were questions about a $119m loan from Enviro NZ to its shareholder, Virgin Islands-based Cencioni Ltd. It was not clear if it was a loan to Cencioni, its immediate parent, or the ultimate parent CK Hutchison, in the Cayman Islands.

“If the money is being spent on public services we should know where the money goes,” Jacob said.

In May, The Post reported lines company Wellington Electricity had an ownership structure that eventually led to another alleged Caribbean tax haven, the Bahamas.

Enviro NZ was asked about the $119m loan and asked if it wanted to respond to its parent company being in an alleged tax haven. OCS was asked about the alleged tax haven status.

Neither responded by deadline.

The council contracts services ranging from road and street light maintenance to graffiti removal, maintaining rating values, waste collection, security, CCTV and facility management.

Wellington mayor Tory Whanau said the council and government expected suppliers to comply with applicable laws, regulations and ethical standards.

“Although it is not explicitly stated in our current policy, we expect all our suppliers to fulfil their tax obligations.”

But national and international laws were needed to stop tax evasion, Whanau said.

“While that’s not council’s role I am open to investigating bringing some of these services in-house so we can ensure living wages for workers and that the money we spend stays in our community.”

Council spokesperson Richard MacLean said “high value” contract and service procurement companies were checked for being domiciled in New Zealand and subject to local taxation.

“The ultimate ownership of such companies can be very complex and as such, are not part of our procurement criteria,” MacLean said.

The council’s processes aligned with government expectations and ethical considerations, he said.

For more on this story go to: THE POST