An independent assessor says the Ministry of Social Development applied an "overly negative bias" when reviewing the Waipareira Trust's provision of services for at-risk families with babies.
The trust is challenging the ministry in the High Court at Auckland over the cancellation of its $1.4 million contract to deliver the Government's Family Start welfare programme.
Heidi Leeson says the ministry's assessment of the trust's performance was based on examples of the "worst of the worst" cases, not a random selection of files as the ministry claimed.
When asked by lawyer for the ministry Jack Hodder whether she was accusing ministry staff of selecting certain cases intentionally, Dr Leeson said she couldn't comment on whether or not the selection was intentionally biased.
But she says the probability that the cases reviewed by the ministry were not pre-selected was very small.
The ministry has said it cancelled the contract because of the trust's poor performance, but has yet to give the court details.
