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MBIE Head Retracts Offer to Meet Taxpayer Representatives
MEDIA RELEASE
MBIE Head Retracts Offer to Meet Taxpayer Representatives
TUESDAY, 23 JUNE
2015
FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
The head of the government department that spent $140,474 on a TV screen, $67,339 on a sign and $5,480 on an arts consultant for its new Wellington offices, has retracted an offer made to the Taxpayers’ Union to meet about the Ministry’s spending. Taxpayers’ Union Executive Director, Jordan Williams, says:
“After we expressed public concerns last week about the Ministry's spending, MBIE officials told us that the CEO, David Smol, would be willing to meet and discuss the wasteful spending within the Ministry. Now the media heat has died down, they refuse to talk.”
“We wanted to have a serious meeting away from the media to constructively engage on how the Ministry is spending taxpayers’ money. Instead of keeping their word, the Ministry is once again running from accountability.”
Today the Taxpayers' Union released a short video of its mascot, Porky, presenting a government waste certificate of achievement to the Ministry's Head of Communications. On the video he can clearly be heard saying that the CEO would meet with theTaxpayers' Union to discuss wasteful use of taxpayers’ money.
ends
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