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September 28, 2022
Oranga Tamariki quizzed on spending
Peter Verschaffelt
Posted On September 28, 2022
Download AudioChildren’s Minister Kelvin Davis says problems in a highly critical review of Oranga Tamariki are being fixed.
After revelations about the agency’s failure to spend money set aside to create sexual violence services, Treasury looked at how it spent $1.1 billion earmarked in Budget 2019 for the improvement and expansion of existing services, and the establishment of new ones.
It found loose fiscal controls and weak organisational strategy and direction.
Mr Davis says he’s satisfied the problems happened under the previous management regime, and he’s pushing the agency to be better about saying where the money is going.
“Two percent of the children take up 20 percent of the funding and some of those young people have needs so severe I don’t begrudge any amount of money being spent keeping them safe and keeping the people who look after them safe. It’s just something that has to be done,” he says.Mr Davis says there’s still lots of work to be done, but the number of uplifts is down and there are fewer children being taken into care.
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