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Labour MP Nanaia Mahuta says the high spend on consultants by Te Puni Kokiri shows the transformation project instigated by chief executive Michelle Hippolite has failed.
Ms Hippolite was grilled yesterday by the Maori affairs select committee about the ministry's performance, including questions about the $7.8 million spent on consultants.
Ms Mahuta says the restructure, which led to some job losses and repurposing other roles, meant it doesn't have the capacity to deliver the policy advice being sought by Maori Development Minister Te Ururoa Flavell.
"And if you look at the minister's two priorities, the Te Reo Maori Bill and Ture Whenua Maori, my main concern is that if they're contracting out huge amounts of that work the transformation project didn't achieve its outcome which was to have capacity in-house rather than contracting out," she says.
Nanaia Mahtua says Te Puni Kokiri has also lost its capacity to audit the performance of other government agencies in delivering outcomes for Maori.
Copyright © 2016, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com
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