Hip-hop report highlights a catalogue of disasters

“A damning report detailing a catalogue of internal funding failures demonstrates that Steve Maharey’s flagship social policy scheme was an embarrassing flop,“ says National Party Social Services spokeswoman Katherine Rich.

She’s referring to the release, late today, of the Audit Report into the Community Employment Group’s so called hip-hop grant.

“It’s a damning indictment on this Minister’s stewardship and shows a stunning lack of accountability in the distribution of taxpayer money.

“The report raises major concerns about a lack of documentation, a failure to keep to the rules, mistakes in the contract and vague project objectives. You name it; the hip-hop grant was faulted on it.

“The Minister will inevitably claim he has taken action, but we were also told that when Closing the Gaps was re-branded. This is part of that failed policy package.

“Steve Maharey must front up to the public of New Zealand and explain why his Government, that promised accountability, stood by and did nothing about this misuse of our money up until the relatively recent past.

“It provides further proof to the Opposition’s claim that the Government has been using capacity building grants to subsidise their pet projects, regardless of their outcomes.

“And surely, the serious nature of the Audit Report, must also raise questions about other funding contracts issued under this Minister’s watch,” says Mrs Rich.

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>