Inquiry wanted on scheme costing

Press, 16 February 1984, Page 6

Inquiry wanted on scheme costing

PA Wellington The Labour Party said yesterday that a full public inquiry was needed if Cabinet Ministers refused to accept responsibility for the “fiasco” surrounding Central Otago irrigation schemes. However, the Social Credit Party said that

Labour was “indulging in constitutional waffle” and that the real cause of “shoddy” cost estimates lay with the Ministry of Works. A Social Credit spokesman, Mr Terry Heffernan, said the department was dominated by engineers instead of being run by com-

petent administrators at the top levels of management. The Acting Leader of the Opposition, Mr Palmer, said the Government’s dealing with the Clyde dam and associated irrigation had been characterised by “high-handedness, manipulation, and even deception.” “A most unpleasant smell is beginning to waft from the Government’s Otago seat-retention scheme,” said Mr Palmer. (The member of Parliament for Otago is the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Cooper.) Mr Palmer said that the Minister of Works, Mr Friedlander, was refusing to shoulder any responsibility for what the Minister had called “gross negligence” in cost estimates by his staff for the Earnscleugh irrigation scheme.

The Opposition demanded to know what information the Government had in front of it when it entered into “a highly political commitment to irrigate Earnscleugh Flats.”

Mr Palmer also asked if the Government’s decision to go ahead with the scheme was based on adequate information or on political convenience. He asked if:

• The engineering reports were done with undue haste resulting from political pressure.

• It was correct that Ministry of'Works engineers and Ministers knew that the costs of irrigation were likely to be high at the time the commitment was entered into. • It was correct that the rate of return on the irrigation did not meet Treasury criteria on the revised estimates.