Leadership recommended
PA Wellington
Parliament’s Public Expenditure Select Committee recommended more than two months ago that the Government urgently give the Treasury responsibility for over-all leadership in the development of financial management systems in Government departments.
The former Auditor-Gen-eral, Mr Fred Shailes, last year laid the blame for slow progress on reforms at the Treasury’s door, referring to a “lack of positive leadership at senior level in the Treasury at crucial stages.” The Public Expenditure Committee also canvassed the issues of reforming financial management for Government departments in its 1983 report. The report was presented to Parliament in the dying stages of last year’s session, but because copies are yet to be printed it has not been widely available. A lack of effective management systems in the Ministry of Works has been blamed for errors in costing several South Island irrigation schemes, leading to the transfer of three senior staff from the Ministry’s Dunedin office.
The Treasury this week released 11 confidential reports to show it had long been critical of the economics for the Maniototo scheme, where the most dramatic cost overruns happened. The chairman of the Public Expenditure Committee, and member of Parliament for Tarawera, Mr lan McLean, said yesterday that recent reports of the committee “indicated it is not satisfied with the progress made on improvement to management systems,” although some improvements had been made in some departments. His committee reported, “It has been difficult to discern progress on strategic issues from the Treasury reports which detail progress on feasibility studies, pilot studies, questionnaires, and departmental visits.”
“The rate of progress depends on the commitment by the Treasury to the task. Progress also depends on whether the Treasury can provide professional leadership in accountancy. “The division of responsibility between the Treasury, the Audit Office, and the
State Services Commission is unsatisfactory in that no one department can be held accountable for standards achieved.”
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19840224.2.32
Bibliographic details
Press, 24 February 1984, Page 4
Word Count
316Leadership recommended Press, 24 February 1984, Page 4
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Press. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Copyright in all Footrot Flats cartoons is owned by Diogenes Designs Ltd. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise these cartoons and make them available online as part of this digitised version of the Press. You can search, browse, and print Footrot Flats cartoons for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Diogenes Designs Ltd for any other use.
Acknowledgements
This newspaper was digitised in partnership with Christchurch City Libraries.
Log in