Auditor-General's Te Wananga o Aotearoa report damning
Hon. Ken Shirley Wednesday, 7 September 2005
Press Releases - Tertiary Education
The Auditor-General's report into the activities of Te Wananga o Aotearoa that has been released for consultation
amongst interested parties slams the Labour Government for allowing a gross wastage of substantial amounts of public
monies, ACT MP Ken Shirley revealed today.
"While the Crown agencies NZQA and the Tertiary Education Commission carry most of the direct flak, it is clear that
those bodies were implementing political directives to shower the Wananga with enormous amounts of taxpayers' money," Mr
Shirley said.
"The extraordinary growth in funding from $5 million in the year 2000 to $239 million last year is unprecedented and
highlights the irresponsible manner in which Labour pursued its 'Closing the Gaps' policy.
"Regrettably, the terms of reference establishing the Auditor- General's enquiry specifically excluded the examination
of the integrity of enrolments and the content and outputs of the courses. What we saw was tens of thousands of students
enrolled in highly spurious courses all designed to maximise the capture of taxpayers' money.
"The details of this gross wastage should be made available to voters in advance of next week's election, but it seems
the Auditor-General's report has been carefully timed to be publicly released following the election," Mr Shirley said.
ENDS