Colin Feslier is the face of Internal Affairs; he is its chief spin doctor.
He is being accused of misleading the media and the public over Winston Peters' failure to return his taxpayer funded Ford Territory.
Wellington's Dominion Post says Feslier deliberately did not tell the full story.
“Absolutely it was a cover up,” says Dominion Post’s Deputy Editor, Nick Wrench. “When we ask a public a straight question we expect a straight answer.”
As the car sat unreturned and unpaid for in Peters’ Auckland driveway in late January, the media started asking questions.
Feslier told them in emails on January 30 that there “have been no issues or difficulties about the use of or return of cars by any former Ministers… Return or arrangements for return were in place for all cars last week.”
However, Peters’ car had not been recovered nor had it been sold to him as it sat in his driveway.
3 News has obtained the Internal Affairs invoice showing the Department was chasing Peters at the time for close to $20,000 and Peters was up to 60 days late in paying for the car.
Feslier never disclosed any of this. Now the Prime Minister says he is going to look at the emails and he may demand further action.
Indeed Feslier - who is meant to act as a neutral public servant at all times - seems to delight in telling Ministerial Services who manage the fleet of cars that he has “managed to get TVNZ, TV3 and the Dominion Post to terminate their interest in the story.”
He also says only the “Herald on Sunday has a picture of the offending car in the offending driveway."
He continues saying the story will be "displaced by anything halfway decent that comes along, so we have to hope for someone famous to do something embarrassing."
Peters later paid around $20,000 for the car, but clearly the critics argue Internal Affairs and Colin Feslier could have been more up-front and Feslier now admits that himself.
3 News