Compensation for loss of office

Press, 4 July 1978, Page 19

Compensation for loss of office

"A Wellington The five members of the the Local Government Commission will be paid a total of 348.365 n compensat.on for loss of office after the abolition of the commission under the Local Governent Amendment Act (No. 2), 1977. The Controller and Auditor-General (Mr A. C. Shades) said in his annual report to Parliament that the Audit Office did not question the amount of pavment, but considered that the case ••illustrates the difficult problem facing any government when services of such board members are terminated prematurely.” “The Audit Office is of the opinion that appointees to statutory boards should not be entitled to assume that the position will always be in

existence,” the report said. “They should realise that they are appointed to a position that may change when Government policy changes and therefore the terms of appointment do not automatically presuppose a right to payment for ‘premature retirement’.” Mr Shailes said that members of Government boards, committees, and tribunals did not normally supply their services on a career basis. Membership was usually drawn from retired servants of the Crown or from the ranks of retired or active business or professional people. “In very few cases are they dependent on the appointment as their principal source of income and therefore any right to a gratuity when the appointment is terminated is doubtful,” he said.