December 06, 2018
TPK grilled as budget goes awry
The Māori Development Ministry has been grilled by MPs for under-spending, budget cuts, failing to rein in spending on consultants, and allowing a whānau ora commissioning agency to take a $600,000 dividend.
Te Puni Kōkiri chief executive Michelle Hippolite went before parliament’s Māori affairs committee this week.
National’s Māori spokespersen Nuk Korako says the ministry seems incapable of budgeting,
He says it doesn’t seem to have come to grips with the restructure ordered under then National finance minster Bill English’s austerity regime.
"When they did the restructure Michelle Hippolite actually said ‘we’re going to need consultants to get through there and then we are going to lower the number considerably.’ That hasn’t happened. In the restructure they took away a lot of those managers and all those experienced people and I believe they’ve probably brought a lot of them back now because they know they can’t operate without them," Mr Korako says.
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