Carich announces receivership

press release
Carich announces receivership

Today, Carich has had to make the deeply regrettable announcement that it has been forced into receivership. Carich was unable to meet its fortnightly wages bill that was due to be paid on October 28 2003, and as a result, is unable to continue trading.

Caron Taurima, Chief Executive Officer of Carich said, it is with deep regret that we find ourselves in this situation. I know that this will have a huge impact on many people, particularly our staff members who have been dedicated and committed to the company to the end. Myself, and the members of my Strategic Management Team have been working around the clock in our efforts to secure money for wages, to save everyone’s jobs and to enable Carich to carry on.

Unfortunately, Carich has been unable to secure any money or support, and our efforts to date have been consistently blocked by the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC).

We have been extremely concerned that Steve Maharey, the Associate Minister of Tertiary Education has been making decisions based on incorrect information provided to him by Ann Clarke, General Manager of the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC). The information provided by Ann Clarke, is based on an as yet incomplete audit being conducted by Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC). Carich has also received indications that the report that would show the TEC owes Carich in excess of $1 million is more than three weeks away. This unrealistic timeframe has meant that Carich has been unable to pay its staff and has been forced to close its doors to staff and students.

In response to the PWC report, Carich commissioned an independent report from KPMG which indicated that with the TEC’s support, Carich would have been fine, would have been able to trade out of it’s financial situation and would have remained a viable business and make a valuable contribution to the New Zealand Education industry. Without the TEC’s support, Carich had little chance of survival. Given the conclusions in the KPMG report, a large portion of the blame for this business’s failure will fall at the Minister’s feet.

To date there has been a clear lack of support and consultation shown by the TEC towards Carich. This is even though Carich has clearly demonstrated to both the Minister and the TEC in the past few weeks that we are aligned to the Tertiary Education Strategy, the draft Maori Education Strategy and has sound operating procedures and policies.

There have also been clear cases of obstruction, one of the largest documented cases is the TEC influencing a major provider to cancel a course delivery contract with Carich. This has had adverse effects on operations that the management of Carich has spent the last six months trying to undo. Other cases include media comment without consultation, and the TEC has as recently as last night continued its efforts to obstruct our efforts to ensure that Carich continues as a viable business.

Ann Clarke indicated to Caron in a conversation last night that the TEC have “already organised places for Carich’s students” and that within five minutes of our notification to the TEC they would be able to get this plan into action.

“We have done everything within our power to try to ensure the viability of Carich, jobs for our staff and an education for our students. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we have still been forced into receivership and had to close our doors around New Zealand.”

ENDS

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