Bus review a ‘whitewash’

Press, 25 September 1989, Page 2

Bus review a ‘whitewash’

By

PAM MORTON

The Road Transport Council wants the Audit Office to review its decision clearing the Christchurch Transport Board of any impropriety in the funding of its tourism business.

Complaints by the council that the board was using public money to finance its tour and charter work were rejected by the southern regional director of the Audit Office, Mr Bede Kearney, in June. A member of the council’s Canterbury branch, Mr Robin King, said the report was a whitewash.

“I don’t think the Audit Office delved deeply into the issue because the money had to come from some public source," he said.

The council wrote to the Audit Office earlier this month asking that the decision be reviewed in the light of new evidence. The secretary of the council, Mr Plimmer, wrote to the AuditorGeneral, Mr Brian Tyler, supplying new information to back the council’s claims. Mr Plimmer said the renewal fund was believed to be funded by ratepayers. “Most of (them) would be interested to learn that

they are funding lossmaking tour coaches and not the urban services for which the board was set up,” he said. Part of the evidence supplied by the council was a written question and answer from the Member of Parliament for Whangarei, Mr John Banks, to the Minister responsible for the Audit Department, Mr Douglas, about the board’s tour and charter income.

His reply stated that for the financial year ended March 31, 1989, a profit on tours and charters of $102,000 was reported to the Canterbury United Council. But estimated extra costs for depreciation ($50,000), share of rent of premises ($20,000) and labour ($37,000) had not been taken into account in arriving at profit, Mr Douglas said. “Had they been, a loss of $5OOO would have been reported,” he said. Mr Kearney in his report found that the board had the power to run

tours and charters and had by implication the power to buy coaches to do the work. Because the board was not increasing the size of its bus fleet and the specialised tour coaches were designed for work previously done by commuter buses, their purchase was part of replacing or renewing the fleet. Mr King said the council had recently been told the board was storing about 20 buses. “If they are not going to use them they should dispose of them because it’s public money.” The chairman of the board, Mr Pat Neary, said the buses were more than 15 years old and were being stored until the board could find a buyer. ( Mr Neary said it was generally accepted that the working life of a public transport bus was 15 years.

It was the fourth time the board had been investigated by the Audit Office and given a clean slate over funding.