Speaker David Carter announces that Auditor-General Martin Matthews is to stand down from the role while an independent review is done.

Fraudster Joanne Harrison found work at the Ministry of Transport after supplying a CV that omitted her role at a council where concerns were raised about her history.

She also seemed to have completed a personality test offered by a company that measured "normal personality characteristics" and "career derailment risks".

Fallout from Harrison's $725,000 fraud at the ministry escalated last week with her former boss, current Auditor-General Martin Matthews, stepping aside as a new investigation into the fraud was announced.

CHRIS SKELTON/STUFF Fraudster Joanne Harrison's travel expenses have been made public, as have her CVs.

Harrison's successful application to the ministry in 2011 followed a failed attempt in 2008. The first application mentioned prominently her time at Far North District Council. In the second, she omitted it entirely.

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In an email soon after her hiring, she asked for a generous relocation deal and claimed to have once worked for Corrections, which is now investigating her claims.

BERNT ROSTAD/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS The Radisson Edwardian in Manchester, where Harrison's stay was funded by New Zealand taxpayers.

On Monday, the Ministry of Transport said that, because Harrison was not shortlisted for the role in 2008, she was not identified as the same person who applied three years later.

She was general manager for "customer focus and culture" at Far North until November 2008. She previously used the name Joanne Sharp and worked at Tower Insurance.

A source who worked with Harrison before she joined the ministry said the saga exposed broader shortcomings in New Zealand recruitment.

FAIRFAX NZ A Ministry of Transport staffer warned years before Harrison's arrest that one of her programmes attracted "interest" from the State Services Commission.

"They can change their name and not have to disclose their past to an employer. That should not be able to happen."

Meanwhile, the purpose of nine of Harrison's domestic taxpayer-funded flights has still not been established.

Ministry data shows her travel expenses amounted to $42,672, including 17 return flights from Wellington to Kerikeri via Auckland.

A flight to Manchester in 2013, and a stay in the city's Radisson Edwardian hotel, cost more than $10,000. The following year, another flight to Manchester cost $8393.

Police in Victoria learned of the travel, and approached travel agents with concerns, after Harrison was named a suspect in an alleged fraud at Goulburn-Murray Water (GMW) two years earlier.

The police concerns were relayed to Matthews, but Harrison told him the issue related to an executive assistant making payments using her credit card.

Harrison has reimbursed MoT $226 for her travel expenses.

The ministry said that, because asset recovery procedures were under way, involving a Northland property, it could not say whether it was seeking any more travel expenses.

Matthews stepped aside last week, saying coverage of the fraud could potentially undermine the Auditor-General's important constitutional role.

"I stand by the actions I took when Secretary for Transport, and know that I acted appropriately based on the information available to me at the time," he said on Wednesday.

His deputy Greg Schollum would run things while the investigation under senior civil servant and former diplomat Sir Maarten​ Wevers​ happened.

Harrison, now 51, is in jail. She's eligible for parole later this year. It wasn't immediately clear if Australia would seek to extradite her.

GHOST SITE

Previously unreported documents also showed concerns about one of Harrison's contracts nearly three years before she was outed.

In 2013, an MoT staffer warned of the need to be "squeaky clean" when discussing design work that Harrison sought for a programme which had supposedly already attracted "interest" from the State Services Commission.

The SSC has been approached for comment.

In 2014, concerns were raised about the lack of contracts Harrison provided for suppliers, and her signing off deals without consulting the legal team.

Harrison sought approval on October 9, 2014, from deputy chief executive Andrew Jackson to keep doing business with two "suppliers" engaged without contracts. One was Mazarine Associates.

A week later, a website was registered for the bogus company, according to website registration records.

Mazarine Associates' website still existed. It claimed to offer services including restructuring, CVs, performance management - and employment advice.