Te Puni Kokiri blowing the budget on contractors, consultants

Brendan Horan is concerned that Te Puni Kokiri is massively overspending on contractors and consultants while at the same time lacking the staff to have the capacity to deliver on its core mission.

“Te Puni Kokori spent over $9.5 million on consultants and contractors in the last financial year.  Over 130 businesses,  organisations and individuals benefitted from this largesse,  holding contracts with a value of nearly $18 million,” said Brendan Horan.

“At the same time, Te Puni Kokiri’s staff numbers are 15.3% below the minimum needed to deliver the services that are required of them.  This is unacceptable at a time when Maori are at the wrong end of the scale in education,  in employment,  and in achievement.

“This points to clear need for Te Puni Kokiri to have capacity within its own staff to discharge its core functions.  The work of the contractors and consultants includes work as basic,  as central,  as administration, report writing, and staff cover.  Work such as strategic leadership is clearly the responsibility for the chief executive,  not something that can be purchased from consultants and contractors who have no long-term involvement with Te Puni Kokiri ”  said Brendan Horan.

All too often the deliverables of these people is loaded with jargon,  and one suspects the work is light on substance.  Some examples of the jargon:  whanau navigators,  commissioning agencies,  culturally anchored,  whanau integration,  whanau centered,  wraparound.  You almost need a translator to turn that into English or Maori.

Brendan Horan was commenting on figures just released on spending at the public sector agency.

Amongst the spending:
•          Careering Options receives $1,633,805 split over 11 contracts across 2½ years for project management services, project co-ordination services,  report writing,  administration services, review services, and human resources cover
•          Te Runanga o Te Rarawa receives $896,167 split over five contracts across three years for Whānau Ora action research and research services
•          PricewaterhouseCoopers receives $864,612.00 split over 11 contracts for advisory services and research services,  project management services,  analysis services,  communication services,  and transition planning services.  Four of the contracts were for exactly $99,000,  and another three were for between $80,000 and $90,000.
•          Dakoda Visions receives $331,500 over 15 months for “strategic leadership services”
•          Nesus and Associates receives $232,880 over 20 months for project leadership services
•          Ernst & Young receives $225,320 over seven months for advisory and review services.
•          FJA Contracting receives $219,780 over 14 months for analysis services
•          Matthew Hooton’s Exceltium receives $113,754 over 2½ months for communication services

TPK_responses_to_questions__appendix_1__info_added.xls
ENDS

© Scoop Media