Quangos will be subject to five-year clause

Press, 25 July 1987, Page 7

Quangos will be subject to five-year clause

PA Wellington Quangos — quasi-auto-nomous non-governmental organisations — will automatically cease to exist five years after their creation, the Cabinet has decided.

The Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Palmer, said all future quangos would be subject to a five-year “sunset clause.” “At the end of that time they will be reviewed to see if they are still fulfilling a useful purpose. Those that are may be continued. The rest will automatically cease to be,” he said. The review would be made by the Treasury and the State z Services Commission, which was already involved in a quango hunt. More than 45 quangos were already “dead and buried,” Mr Palmer said. "Many of the organisa-

tions that are being eliminated lost their reason for being long ago, but until this Government came into office no-one ever questioned their existence.”

Those disposed of included four rent appeal boards, Wheat Board, industrial property advisory committee, tobacco growing industry board and the fluoridation advisory committee.

“Quangocide will thin the forest of superfluous, outdated and defunct bodies that past Governments have frequently established to answer the incessant demands of pressure and sector interest groups.

"Too often controls that are administered by quangos stifle initiatives that are capable of generating jobs as well as creating more wealth for the whole community,” Mr

Palmer said. Quango hunting was not easy, however. "Quangos are a very hardy breed. No sooner is one terminated than another reappears bearing a slightly altered title. "Unfortunately no-one really knows just how many quangos there are,” he said.

“My own estimate is more than 3000.”