Mike's Minute: Transpower isn't the only one at fault

I can't help but think the Transpower report into the pylon falling over is one of those reports that has to find things to say because the real reason for the report was obvious.  Nevertheless, there are 26 recommendations.  To recap, the company that Transpower hires to maintain the pylons hired a couple of clowns and didn’t train them. They undid a lot of bolts, and the pylon fell over.  The report suggests that ultimately is Transpower's fault.  I don’t see how.  If you hire a painter and he paints your house the wrong colour, your wife tells you you’re are an idiot for hiring that painter.  As long as Transpower had checked that Omexom was a proper company, what is it they are supposed to be doing?  Are they supposed to vet the company every time they do any work? Do they run through the CV of everyone who touches a bolt? Or is that the contractor's job, the way it’s the contractor's job for everyone you hire in life to do anything for you?  Certainly the issue raised in 2021, when an engineer for Transpower told them maintenance issues were a thing, is on Transpower?  They were alerted and yet they did nothing. That, I suspect, goes in some way to the fact Transpower are a monopoly and monopolies tend to be a bit lax.  The report recommends Transpower improve processes for maintenance work on base plates. What does that mean?  Do you need to hire a rocket scientist to unscrew some bolts and have a laminated sign on every tower saying "only undo one bolt at a time"? Surely this is getting all a bit forensic and smacks of a report author making stuff up for the sake of it?  The simple truth, the beginning, the middle and the end of it, is Omexom are at fault. They are the ones that didn’t do their job. The original report told us this.  None of this is complicated. They weren't building the Hadron Collider. They were cleaning a tower.  Omexom hired fools, didn’t train them and untrained fools made mistakes.  Omexom should be sacked. They should be sued or made to pay for the damage. The report says anywhere between $37-80 million, and that should be that.  Transpower are not devoid of responsibility, given pylons are on them. But the reason a CEO doesn’t clean the building, do the correspondence and make all the boxes is it's not possible and not reasonable and that’s why you hire people to do the stuff you can't.  At some point in the hiring process the level of responsibility transfers from the hirer to the hiree?  End of report. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.