Recipe for a $600 million leaky roof

Thu, Feb 28 2013

On the one hand, the HBRC says,’Trust us, we can manage a $600 million water storage scheme. Don’t worry about the details.”

On the other hand, consider the responsibilities involved and HBRC’s track record …

Oversight and accountability for managing major construction project — leaky roof on HBRC headquarters will cost $2.2 million to repair. ‘Let’s pass the blame to Napier Council’s building inspectors’, say some regional councillors.

Stimulating economic development — after many regular quarterly reports from Hawke’s Bay Tourism, HBRC still can’t figure out if its tourism agency and strategy is working or not; while its economic development surrogate, Business Hawke’s Bay is floundering, according to its last manager, Murray Douglas.

Competence to care for a major body of stored water — think about the state of Lake Tutira … ever been worse?

Commitment to manage intensified farming for environmental impacts — signaling its aversion to needed (dare I say the word?) regulation, HBRC giddily embraces the new voluntary ‘Dairy Accord’, which adds two more years for meeting clean-up goals originally set in 2003. While according to MAF 2011 report, only 42% of farms had fenced and completely excluded stock from all streams which met the accord definition of streams; only 57% of accord waterways across or adjacent to surveyed farms were completed fenced and protected.

These are day-to-day tasks the Regional Council can’t seem to get a grip on.

What confidence should we have in HBRC’s ability to manage a $600 million water scheme — one that’s still today being ‘refined’ daily, with a rushed work program that’s grinding down staff and bringing other HBRC work programs to a standstill?

Too fast. Too murky. Too little independent scrutiny. Too mysterious to the rate- and tax-paying public … and even to other elected officials in Hawke’s Bay.

Sounds like a recipe for another, much more expensive, leaky roof.

Tom Belford

Related Stories

Dam consultation — Regional Council-style
Rod Oram: Dam could be a “crucial and defining conflict”
Chris Tremain questioned on dam and amalgamation
ends

© Scoop Media

Scoop Business: Bathurst Gets Nod For DoC Access To Denniston Mine

Conservation Minister Nick Smith has approved access over conservation estate land for Bathurst Resources to develop an open cast coal mine on the Denniston Plateau, above Westport, to the dismay of environmental opponents.

The timing for Smith’s move avoids Bathurst having to resubmit applications for access agreements under the revised Crown Minerals Act, which comes into force tomorrow and would have required public consultation.

The announcement lands in the middle of delicate negotiations between the company, environmental groups and other interested parties that could pave the way to a broader agreement on the Escarpment proposal, whose resource consents are still subject to court appeals. More>>