The Auditor-General’s damning investigation into the cost of living payment has embarrassed the Government into making changes to the rollout of the scheme, National’s Finance Spokesperson Nicola Willis says.

“It was obvious from the start that the cost of living payment had been desperately rushed out with no attention to detail. That’s why I wrote to the Office of the Auditor-General earlier this month to ask them to examine the delivery of the cost of living payment.

“Today it’s been confirmed that the Auditor-General did carry out an investigation of the scheme.

“The letter released today following this investigation is damning and confirms that the cost of living payment has been an expensive failure, stating that ‘good stewardship of public money required greater care when designing and implementing the [cost of living payment]’.

“It is clear that the Auditor-General’s investigation has forced the Government into making changes to the cost of living payment.

“It was obvious after the first payment ended up in the bank accounts of London expats, French backpackers and dead people that the Government had not done the work to ensure that only eligible New Zealanders could get the payment.

“The Auditor-General makes a good point, but one that should have been obvious to any responsible government, in suggesting changes be made to future payments to ‘ensure that the payments are reaching only the people the Government intended the payment go to’.

“The Government has been unable to answer questions about how many ineligible people received the first payment, and has shown little interest in finding out.

“Rightly, the Auditor-General is asking Inland Revenue to ‘consider what steps it can take to identify how many ineligible people have already received payments’.

“It’s shocking that it took a stern word from the Auditor-General for the Government to take taxpayers’ money seriously.

“Labour has a complete and utter disregard for taxpayer money. Kiwis deserve a government that treats public money with respect and don’t need a public slap-down to do so.”

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