Iwi escort costs to get set limit

Press, 7 September 1989, Page 6

Iwi escort costs to get set limit

By

PETER LUKE

in Wellington

The Government will act to prevent a recurrence of the level of cost which recently saw it pay $12,304 to bring family and tribal members of a transferring Department of Social Welfare official to Christchurch.

The department has been told to report on ways to prevent a recurrence, as part of a more general report on the practice.

For the second day running Opposition members of Parliament probed the circumstances surrounding the cost of allowing iwi (tribal) members to

accompany the transfer of Mr Eddie Te Moananui from Cambridge to Christchurch. Mr Te Moananui took, up the post of assistant director-general at the southern regional office on July 17, but retired five weeks later. Some 36 members of his central North Island iwi accompanied him to Christchurch and stayed for several days at a cost of $12,304, including a $3OOO koha (gift). The Acting Minister of Social Welfare, Mrs King, said yesterday that there were no limits on spending in such cases in State Services Commission guidelines.