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The Ministry for Maori Develoment has been slammed for spending too much on administering and evaluating Whanau Ora, and not enough on the families in need.
The Audit Office has assessed the first four years of the policy, and says Te Puni Kokiri swallowed up almost a third of the $136 million spent so far.
Auditor general Lynn Provost praised the kaupapa of working with families to promote well-being, but says the agencies responsible for delivering whanau ora couldn’t give a consistent explanation of its aims and initiatives.
That is confusing both to public entities and to whanau.
She says while Whanau Ora promotes the idea that health and social services providers focus on whanau, their contracts with government agencies mainly require them to deliver services to individuals.
The Ministries of Health and Social Development had no plans to change to a funding model that would take advantage of the money being spent on Whanau Ora.
Maori Development Minister Te Ururoa Flavell says the report is a useful summary of phase one of Whanau Ora, but the project has moved on to phase two, where non-government commissioning agencies contract for services closer to communities.
He says 9400 families have benefitted from whanau-centred service delivery since Whanau Ora started in 2010.
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