Award-winning executive faced spending probe before becoming FENZ board chair

Monday, 20 July 2026

An award-winning executive faced a financial spending probe involving taxpayer funds before she became the chair of Fire and Emergency New Zealand’s board, Stuff can reveal.

Rebecca Keoghan was also suspected of being involved in the swapping of a new $20,000 silo meant for a Pāmu (Landcorp) farm with a second-hand silo on her family farm, while she was in a senior role at the state-owned enterprise in 2018.

Pāmu senior management suspected the swap was “concealed on purpose”. They also raised concerns with Keoghan about a director’s course and flight she paid for using her work credit card, which had not been reimbursed at the time an internal audit was done.

Keoghan denied any wrongdoing to both Pāmu in 2018, and to Stuff last week. No finding of wrongdoing was ever made against her, and the suspicions were never tested beyond Pāmu’s internal inquiries.

“I am struggling to understand why you are raising this issue when to the best of my knowledge all matters were resolved at the time,” Keoghan told Stuff in a statement. “I absolutely reject any wrongdoing or financial irregularities in my time at Landcorp.”

Pāmu is New Zealand’s largest agricultural landholder and farming enterprise. It manages more than 110 farms across 360,000 or so hectares.

Keoghan, who received an MNZM in 2017 for services to business, was Pāmu’s business manager and general manager of the Pāmu Academy in 2018 – roles that involved oversight of a number of its farms.

She had already left by the time Pāmu uncovered suspected financial irregularities involving tens of thousands of dollars in the early parts of that year. Keoghan was interviewed by Pāmu senior management in August 2018, and gave her own version of events.

The matter was not taken any further.

“I talked to Landcorp in August 2018 about the above matters, and I provided fulsome answers. No further actions were forthcoming,” Keoghan said in her statement to Stuff.

Keoghan was appointed deputy chair of the FENZ board in June 2019 and its chair in July 2021.

She was vetted by the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) prior to both appointments.

The DIA says no disclosures were made to it regarding Keoghan’s time at Pāmu.

In late 2018 Pāmu was invoiced for a brand new silo, but had allegedly received a second-hand silo from Keoghan’s Buller farm – a move its senior management suspected was “concealed on purpose”, according to documents released to Stuff under the Official Information Act.

Keoghan denies having any involvement in the alleged swap or purchasing of a silo by Pāmu.

She owns and runs a farm on the West Coast with her husband, near the Pāmu farms she was managing at the time.

In response to questions from Stuff, Keoghan said her family farm in Buller ordered a new silo, augur and in-shed feeding system in October 2017. She provided banking statements to Stuff to show it being paid for in December of that year, and a further payment made in May 2018 to replace the silo that she said was not fit for purpose.

The silo was replaced by the supplier, Keoghan said.

“I had no interest in what happened to the silo feeding system after it left our farm. But there were questions asked in the back half of 2018 about its purchase by a Pamu farm. That purchase had nothing to do with me – I was running an academy, and not involved in any purchasing decisions by individual Landcorp farms.”

Pāmu later received an invoice for the new silo from the vendor.

Its senior management disputed the invoice because it had no knowledge of the purchase, and the vendor threatened legal recovery action after not being paid, according to the documents.

The matter was later resolved.

Using her work credit card, Keoghan also paid for a $10,000 director’s course for another employee, and a flight, allegedly without disclosing the purchases appropriately, or reimbursing Pāmu by the time the audit was conducted, according to the documents.

Keoghan had left her role by the time the irregularities were discovered.

(Neither the documents nor Pāmu disclosed Keoghan’s name. Stuff has independently verified the matters related to her.)

Regarding the flight, Keoghan said it cost about $200 and was purchased in an emergency to get a staff member home to Wellington.

“The cost of the flight was reimbursed in cash by the employee, and that cash was delivered by myself to an appropriate staff member at Landcorp’s head office.”

She said one of her staff members was booked on the director’s course, which was approved by her manager at the time.

“The employee resigned before the course was held and, due to doing two jobs at once, I did not seek reimbursement before the director’s course was held.”

Pāmu deemed the financial irregularities serious enough to commission PwC to conduct an internal audit, which found a number of control breakdowns related to the use of funds, according to the documents.

The report found that the brand new $20,000 silo Pāmu was invoiced for was swapped with a second-hand silo on another farm, without this being disclosed.

In internal correspondence, senior management at Pāmu said they suspected the transaction was “concealed on purpose” and did not come to light until questions were raised.

Keoghan was interviewed about Pāmu’s concerns in August 2018 and gave her account of the matter, which conflicted with others given by staff members at the time, according to internal company documents.

“PwC identified a number of control breakdowns,” a letter sent by Pāmu’s legal counsel to its management and board said in mid-August of that year.

“These included purchase orders not [being] raised, no evidence of proper approvals and lack of appropriate documentation (contracts and documentary evidence supporting the purchase of goods and services).”

According to a summary of her interview, Keoghan offered to supply an invoice that would have been “crucial” to supporting her account, but then later failed to provide it, leading Pāmu management to determine that her version of events could not be proven.

Pāmu senior management wrote a letter to then-chief executive Steve Carden in mid-August 2018, advising him of their opinion:

“The second hand silo had been arranged to be swapped with a brand new silo and Pāmu were to be invoiced for the new silo. It is our opinion that the nature of this transaction of 'swapping' a new for second hand silo was concealed on purpose.”

Management said the transaction raised questions of integrity and undisclosed conflicts of interest.

Responding to questions from Stuff, Pāmu confirmed that a staff member was suspected of failing to adhere to proper internal controls related to financial spending.

“At that time the employee involved was no longer working for Pāmu and the silo matter (the most material matter from a financial standpoint) was resolved. As such, Pāmu management decided not to pursue the investigation further with the individual involved.”

The matters were not disclosed beyond the Pāmu board because of the company’s privacy obligations, and because some of the matters were not conclusively determined due to incomplete information and differing accounts, the spokesperson said.

They said internal controls were later strengthened through “an updated delegated authority framework, a capital expenditure committee, and the implementation of an online procurement and accounts payable system”.

Keoghan was later appointed to and chaired the board of FENZ, which oversees the use of millions of dollars of Government funds.

She was first appointed as deputy chair in June 2019 by then-Internal Affairs Minister Tracey Martin.

Jan Tinetti appointed her as chair two years later, and current minister Brooke van Velden reappointed Keoghan in 2024, before replacing her in May of this year.

No ministers were aware of the allegations involving Keoghan at the time she was appointed to her roles, a DIA spokesperson said.

“The matters you raise regarding Ms Keoghans’s time at Landcorp/Pamu were not disclosed by Ms Keoghan or the Department of Internal Affairs to me and I am unable to comment on this allegation,” van Velden said in a statement to Stuff.

“During the 2024 appointment round, my officials at DIA recommended Ms Keoghan for reappointment. My expectation is that Crown entity board appointments follow established processes, including due diligence and consideration of relevant information about candidates.

“I have selected a new Chair of the Fire and Emergency Board with a depth of experience in infrastructure governance, financial oversight, and system stewardship.”

In her statement appointing Raveen Jaduram as the FENZ board chair in place of Keoghan in May of this year, van Velden said: “The board chair plays a critical role in ensuring the board holds Fire and Emergency’s chief executive and senior leadership accountable for organisational performance, financial management, and the delivery of strategic outcomes.

“I would like to thank Ms Keoghan for her service during a critical period for Fire and Emergency New Zealand. She has supported the organisation through its post-amalgamation phase, strengthening its structure, and advancing important work on workplace culture and organisational integrity.”

A DIA spokesperson said no disclosures regarding Keoghan’s time at Pāmu were made to it at any time.

“A referee check was completed as part of the 2019 appointment process, and no issues of concern were raised. We cannot provide further details on the nature of the appointment process.”

Stuff asked Pāmu if any of its staff or executives provided a reference.

“To the best of our knowledge, no,” a spokesperson said. “However, records of this nature are not kept so it is possible that a Pāmu staff member has provided a character reference.”

Fire and Emergency New Zealand declined to comment.

Keoghan won Fonterra Dairy Woman of the year in 2016 and was awarded the Rural Woman of Influence Award in 2018.

She and her husband run a dairy farm in Westport on the West Coast of the South Island.

The well respected executive is also the chair of the Future Focussed Animal Evaluation Governance Group - an independent group of respected agricultural leaders formed last year to help New Zealand’s dairy industry remain internationally competitive in genetic gain.

Her previous directorships include Timaru District Holdings, Alpine Energy, Tai Poutini Polytechnic, Buller Holdings, Westland Milk Products, Invercargill City Forests and Forest Growth Holdings.

Keoghan cited herself as being “commercially astute with considerable experience in complex organisations” with “strong financial and risk management skillsets” in her candidate profile for the Ravensdown director election 2025.