The saga began in early 2017, when Matthews was embroiled in a scandal surrounding his time as chief executive of the Ministry of Transport.

A fraud, committed by Harrison, then a senior staffer, was exposed in the media just as Matthews was interviewing for the role of Auditor-General. Harrison had falsified invoices, allowing her to embezzle money. Before Matthews’ appointment, the committee was briefed on the fraud, but the storm continued to brew after he took up the role.

As the government’s chief financial watchdog, the Auditor-General is responsible for scrutinising all state spending, from big purchases of land to the budgets of schools.

Martin Matthews says he was forced to resign as Auditor-General. Martin Matthews says he was forced to resign as Auditor-General.

Unlike ordinary civil service jobs, the Auditor-General is responsible to Parliament as a whole, rather than to a specific government, party or minister. It is appointed unanimously by the Officers of Parliament Committee, a group of senior MPs chaired by the Speaker. The Ombudsman and the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment are the only other such officers.

Officers of Parliament are meant to be nearly impossible to get rid of without very good reason. A Government isn’t allowed to remove an Officer - only Parliament can, and even then only by passing a resolution specifying four strict criteria: disability affecting the performance of duty, bankruptcy, neglect of duty, or misconduct.

Although such a resolution could be passed by a simple Parliamentary majority, constitutional experts agree the convention is that every single party would need to agree to an Officer’s removal. This is so rare that it’s never actually happened.

This is to protect their independence and to make sure an Officer doesn’t feel intimidated inquiring into politically sensitive business. The Auditor-General is protected by the natural tension that exists between all parties: it would have to be very serious to put aside partisan squabbles and agree to vote unanimously to remove someone from the job.

As the Harrison scandal deepened, questions were asked over whether Matthews was suitable for the role as the Government’s chief fraud watchdog when a fraud had been carried out at the ministry while he had been in charge.

A media storm ensued and continued to rage until May as allegations emerged that Matthews had ignored and later sacked whistleblowers. In an attempt to dispel some of the rumours, Matthews requested the committee conduct an inquiry into his handling of the fraud. In May, senior civil servant Sir Maarten Wevers was asked to review Matthews’ actions at the Ministry.

Wevers’ report was delivered, but Matthews resigned before the committee made any final decision on its contents and the report was never released. It was hidden from the public by Parliamentary privilege, a set of rules which treats everything that happens in closed select committees as strictly confidential.

But that privilege lapses at the end of each Parliament. If the committee wanted the report to remain secret, it would have to motion in Parliament for it to remain suppressed. This never happened, meaning the report and the meeting where Matthews was allegedly forced to resign can now be recounted in detail.