December 20, 2013
Te Puni Kokiri cuts undermining mission
Independent MP Brendan Horan is accusing the Ministry for Maori Development of massively overspending on consultants because it doesn’t have the staff to deliver on its core mission.
Mr Horan says in the last financial year Te Puni Kokiri spent more than $9.5 million on consultants and contractors, benefiting more than 130 businesses, organisations and individuals.
He says staffing is 15 percent below the minimum needed to deliver basic services including administration and report writing.
He says staff attrition is high because of a lack of faith in the ministry’s direction, and there is an environment of back-stabbing that is undermining the ability of new chief executive Michelle Hippolite to lead effectively.
"Michelle’s a good person with good intentions, but I think she has been set up to fail by National Party cronies who fundamentally want to see the organisation disbanded. That seems to be the end game here and Maori need to be very concerned about this and we need to be calling for this government to explain why it has allowed the situaiton to develop and what it will do to staunch the bleeding and return the organisation to health," Mr Horan says.
He says rather than talking of whanau ora, Maori should focus on TPK ora, because without the organisation programmes like whanau ora will not survive.
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