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A report into how an immigration boss used her position to help family come to New Zealand has backed up the findings of a ONE News investigation.
The Labour Department and its former chief executive, James Buwalda, have also been criticised in the high-level report released on Friday.
The report concerns former Immigration Service boss Mary Anne Thompson's role in helping family members gain residency in New Zealand.
The State Services Commission report , written by chief legal adviser David Shanks, outlines how officials raised concerns about visa waivers given to family members in April 2005.
It confirms that Thompson's nephew Kauri Katikemoa and his family received visa waivers to enter New Zealand when they weren't entitled to.
"The report is clear that Thompson's involvement resulted in her family receiving personal benefits that they would not have normally received if she had not held her position in the department," says Iain Rennie, State Services Commissioner.
Instead of having a quick holiday in Wellington, the family stayed and, against immigration rules, gained residency.
Thompson not only knew this, she supported it.
"This behaviour at the top meant that staff up to seven levels down the hierarchy were put under inappropriate and unwelcome pressure," says Christopher Blake of the Labour Department.
Sarah Flesher was one staff member who refused to approve the residency application and today she said the report reflected the situation at the time.
"Because of Thompson's title, staff were pressured into making decisions they knew were inappropriate," says Flesher.
Thompson has hired media consultant Glenda Hughes who released a statement for her saying she now accepts her actions were unwise and acknowledges if she was in the same dilemma again she would approach things differently.
Thompson also says she is hopeful when all of this is sorted she will be able to return.
Meanwhile the Department of Labour is looking at whether Katikemoahis family's has a right to be here.
The report also says the Labour Department's then chief executive, James Buwalda, did not do enough to deal with the situation.
He spoke to Thompson and asked for the decision to grant the waivers to be checked out. He did not find out about other waivers in December 2004.
"I have concluded that Mr Buwalda's actions were not effective," Shanks says.
A department solicitor pointed out the conflict of interest, which was passed on to Buwalda, but again nothing was done.
"The result was the department failed to respond effectively to this issue."
Thompson was criticised for her role in the affair and the fact she did not tell the chief executive what she was doing.
Shanks says Thompson continued to help family members and signed residency application forms. These were approved despite being late, and against the approving official's advice.
Shanks says the decision was against policy.
An investigation into the applications by former justice secretary David Oughton was carried out, but by then a new chief executive had taken over.
Shanks says no in-depth examination was done in cases where staff were told to incorrectly approve visas.
Shanks says the case shows the importance of dealing with conflict of interest situations openly and effectively, which is even more vital the more senior the person is.
"At various times people correctly raised concerns but did not
see any outcome whatsoever.
"The department's response was inadequate."
He made a series of recommendations to improve processes and said the department needed to make sure no valid applications missed out because Thompson's got priority treatment.
The report is the first of several into the Immigration Service and Thompson is also being investigated by the police for incorrectly claiming she held a doctorate.
This is the first report from four investigations into the immigration department and Thompson. Thompson's actions are also being investigated by the Auditor-General, the Labour Department and police.
