$6.4M reserve from exams not disclosed

Press, 4 February 1987, Page 8

$6.4M reserve from exams not disclosed

By

JENNY LONG

The University Grants Committee, which sets the fees for bursary and scholarship examinations, has been criticised by the Auditor-General for not disclosing a $6.4 million reserve.

The committee, in its report to Parliament, does not have to give a financial report. However, this denied the public an opportunity to comment, said the Auditor-General in his annual report.

“The Grants Committee has a virtually captive market in which it can determine its own revenue through its power to set fees,” said the report.

. Students last year paid $lO5 to sit the University Bursary examination and $165 to sit for a scholarship. The University Grants Committee was set up in 1961 as an independent adviser to the Government on the universities. The total income between 1982 and 1986 was

$16.4 million, providing a $4.7 million surplus. Part of the accumulated reserves was used in 1984 to build a $3.2 million office block in Wellington. The chairman of the committee said that when it was set up in 1961 it was to remain financially independent, examination fees being the main source of funds. Since 1970, it had seemed likely that University Entrance, its primary income, would be discontinued. It was now unlikely that there would be a surplus from examinations. The committee had therefore tried to increase the proportion of income from assets. “This led to the decision to build the office block, in part to provide the committee with an investment income, and in part in anticipation of the then expected loss of its existing accommodation. “The accumulated surpluses have done no more than maintain the real value of the assets transferred to the committee in 1961 from the University of New Zealand.”