Responding to reports that Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa was defrauded of $122,067, the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is urging the state sector to strengthen reporting regimes.

Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager Louis Houlbrooke says, “Like other instances of fraud in public organisations, the theft has been referred to as ‘sophisticated’ and ‘carefully covered up’. The reality is, had proper systems been in place, it could have been avoided.”

“We’ve written to Te Papa requesting clarity of how this happened — so taxpayers have transparency and other agencies can learn from the mistake. How were these payments signed off? What were Te Papa’s auditing procedures? How did this person have access to both payroll and the email database?”

“Instances of fraud in the state sector, such as this and the Ministry of Transport being defrauded of $725,000, waste taxpayer money and erode public confidence in public institutions. We have to learn the lessons if we are to stop these events occurring.”
 

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