Mana schemes’ ‘waste’ in secret report

Press, 2 October 1987, Page 4

Mana schemes’ ‘waste’ in secret report

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Wellington

Millions of dollars are being wasted in the Mana Access training scheme, according to a secret report in the hands of the Opposition spokesman on Maori affairs, Mr Winston Peters (Tauranga).

Mr Peters said the report had been written for the Minister of Maori Affairs, Mr Wetere, by a Maori Elder who was a close confidante of the Minister.

The Mana enterprise scheme had been labelled in the report as being "plagued by ineffective leadership and poor executive support,” Mr Peters said. The Government was presiding over absolute chaos in the Mana scheme which was being characterised by shoddy administration, lack of accountability, and total lack of executive support The report showed that $ll million had been paid out by the Maori Affairs Department in administration of the scheme without any accountability at all, Mr Peters said. This very worth-while scheme, which the Maori people needed desperately to be a success, was now in jeopardy. The aspirations of the Maori people were being

thwarted by slack and uncaring administration, Mr Peters said.

The report was prepared for Mr Wetere during September. The report claimed that the $ll million allocated by the Government had been dispersed by the Mana management committee on the basis of trusting the recipients without requiring them to account

Only five of the 27 authorities identified by the committee as recipients had their allocations confirmed by the proper authority, the Board of Maori Affairs. The blame for unsatisfactory procedures had to be shared by the board, the Mana committee and the Maori Affairs Department, the report said.

A number of more specific allegations of impropriety were also made in the report.

Mr Peters blamed the Minister of Employment, Mr Goff, for being ineffectual and insensitive in

his handling of the Mana scheme.

However, Mr Goff said he had handled Mana for only one month — March — as Minister. During the 1987-88 financial year Mana was the sole responsibility of the Minister of Maori Affairs, Mr Wetere.

He suggested that if the rest of Mr Peters’ facts were as inaccurate as his claim that Mana was run by the Minister of Employment, his claims must be "pretty flimsy.”

Mr Wetere was not in Parliament last evening. He is on sick leave. Mr Peters said the out-and-out battle of the Mana administrators with the Maori Affairs Department suggested a complete lack of interest by Mr Wetere as Minister. He claimed that the transfer of responsibility for Mana from Mr Goff to Mr Wetere had compounded the incompetence with which the scheme was being administered.