A community advocate says it's not good enough for the departing chief executive of the Christchurch City Council to claim he didn't know about the council's building consents crisis.
Tony Marryatt resigned on Friday after a report said he shares much of the blame for the organisation losing its building consents accreditation.
Mr Marryatt says he wasn't made aware of the problems until May.
The report asks whether his ignorance constitutes carelessness or poor performance.
A spokesperson for the Wider Earthquake Communities Action Network, Reverend Mike Coleman, says a man in Mr Marryatt's position cannot claim ignorance as a defence.
"That's just totally ridiculous. Tony Marryatt's been paid $538,000 for some time now. He needed to know what was going on in the consents debacle. It was under his watch."
He says other council managers should be held accountable as well.
In a statement, Mr Marryatt said he accepted that, despite the presence of mitigating factors, the final responsibility for the loss of accreditation of the building consents division must rest with him as the council's chief executive.
He said he felt that given the pending elections, this was an appropriate time to resign
He said he was proud of what the council organisation had achieved for the city in extremely trying times.
