Qangos flourish in spite of culling

Press, 1 June 1989, Page 1

Qangos flourish in spite of culling

by

PATTRICK SMELLIE

in Wellington Two years ago the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Palmer, announced “The Great Qango Hunt.” Ever since, the species has happily multiplied. To be fair, the count of quasiautonomous, non-Governmental organisations now includes the local community offspring of larger, national “parent” qangos, and 56 qangos were picked off in May, 1986. Questions from the National Party’s special projects spokesman, Mr George Gair, revealed

that qangos have managed an almost 70 per cent increase since the July, 1984, General Election. A total of 388 qangos were shown to exist today, compared with 230 in July, 1984. Mr Palmer’s own qango count is up from 51 to 67 over that period. He pointed out that this was due to the “improvement of the parole system," which has created 17 new district prison boards. A qango epidemic has occurred in the portfolio of the Minister of Social Welfare, Dr Cullen. He now presides over

195 qangos, compared with only 77 in July, 1984. But again, the main culprits are proliferating children’s boards, of which there are 41, 52 Community Organisation Grants Scheme committees, 41 district review committees, and 40 district executive committees.:. The Minister of Conservation, Mr Woollaston, has 43 qangos, all of which came into existence after the department’s own birth, in 1987. The Minister of Health, Ms Clark, enhances her growing reputation for austerity by presiding over just one qango, in-

stead of the six the Government inherited in 1984. But when all is said and done, even counting qangos accurately seems impossible.

When he first announced the qango hunt, In January, 1986, Mr Palmer estimated there could have been as many as 3400 in 1981, counting 2598 school committees.

* But the latest census does not include the new school boards of trustees, nor such bodies as Regional Employment Access Councils (R.E.A.C.s).

The qango, it seems, is an elusive beast.