Wintringham WINZ report shows need for State sector overhaul

The Alliance says the State Services Commissioner's report on the WINZ charter fiasco is ineffectual and shows the need for complete overhaul of State sector management and accountability.

'Mr Wintringham's report shows that there are deep problems with State sector management and there isn't enough accountability,' Alliance social security spokesperson Grant Gillon said.

'But even worse, the report shows that even when problems are discovered, not much gets done about it.

'The finding that there was no evid ence of any understanding within WINZ about what was an acceptable level of expenditure is damning.

'This is another way of saying that WINZ management can't tell the difference between right and wrong.

'How can a salary of $220,000 for Mrs Rankin be justified when she was not even able to impose basic financial discipline on her department? How can WINZ Minister Roger Sowry duck responsibility for his own officials running amok with the taxpayers' cheque book?'The G! overnment has to take political responsibility for this.

A succession of State sector Ministers, including the Prime Minister herself have allowed State sector management to fall to such a substandard level.

'The whole philosophy of State sector reorganisation is brought into question by this outcome. For a decade New Zealanders have been told that 'inputs don't matter. It's only outputs that count.

' Now we have confirmation from the State Services Commissioner that State sector management took that philos ophy as a licence to spend whatever they wanted.

'It is outrageous that ordinary WINZ staff and beneficiaries who rely on WINZ for an income must struggle to get by while WINZ management guzzle deeply in the public trough and don't have the faintest idea of the difference between right and wrong.

'The Alliance will hold a full review of State sector management and accountability, including a review of the ineffectiveness of the State Service Commission, and the loss of a ! public service ethic,' Grant Gillon said.

ENDS

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Alastair Thompson

Scoop Publisher

Alastair Thompson is the co-founder of Scoop. He is of Scottish and Irish extraction and from Wellington, New Zealand. Alastair has 24 years experience in the media, at the Dominion, National Business Review, North & South magazine, Straight Furrow newspaper and online since 1997. He is the winner of several journalism awards for business and investigative work.

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