A private investigator contracted by the Bay of Plenty Regional Council has completed an audit of mooring chains following allegations about the quality by boat owners.

BOPRC general manager natural hazards, Ken Tarboton, told SunLive a private investigator has now completed the audit of moorings in Tauranga and Ohiwa harbours, and the Whakatane River and is expected to report the findings in about a week.

Boat moorings in Tauranga Harbour are being investigated by an independent investigator.

The audit follows allegations made at the June council meeting by mooring owners saying the regional council's sole mooring contractor was using the wrong type of chain.

Mooring owners concerned about the chain issue also picketed outside the council meeting in Tauranga last week.

'We've had a lot of discontent from mooring owners and they have come to council, and at that stage we made a commitment that we would investigate allegations they were making about incorrect chain being used,” says Ken today.

It took a bit longer than they expected to decide how that investigation would proceed, says Ken.

The council has hired an independent investigator to inspect a number of moorings, to inspect and photograph the chain and take a few chain links for further investigation if required.

'From some of the preliminary feedback that I have had from the investigator, he will not need to send those off for metallurgic testing,” says Ken.

'The initial feedback is he can provide us with a pretty good report on whether they aren't, or are, (the correct chain) without having to send those samples off for testing and that he can provide us with that in the next week.

'If there are any inconsistencies then we may have to dig into that further, so it's really hard to tell when that will become public. The only thing that's public at the moment is we are doing that audit investigation. We are taking the allegations about incorrect chain being used pretty seriously.”

If the mooring chain used is not the stipulated brand and type of chain required to be used, the mooring contractor Seaquest Marine Ltd, will be given the opportunity to respond, says Ken.

The mooring owners' complaint is that a cheaper brand of chain has been used that rusts through quicker, and requires replacement sooner. Seaquest Marine Ltd is the only mooring contractor approved by the regional council, giving the company a monopoly and preventing dissatisfied mooring owners from seeking a competitive alternative.