Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown has come out swinging against the council’s cultural and economic agency for spending $737,208.58 on its ‘Happiness Guide” campaign to improve the city’s declining public perceptions.

“Once again Tātaki Auckland Unlimited has demonstrated its proficiency in wasting money, almost as if waiting on queue” said Ratepayers’ Alliance Spokesman, Sam Warren.

“A post-mortem showed around only 14% of those surveyed actually improved their perceptions of Auckland, making any rushed defence for the $730,000 campaign beyond comprehension.

“TAU seems very eager to flex its enormous budget, but much less concerned about providing any real value to ratepayers footing the bill. This is also the case with other CCOs like Auckland Transport – whose model skirts accountability time and again.

“Condemnation by Brown follows moves to explore reform of Auckland’s Council Controlled Organisations. With this kind of wasteful spending going on, there’s no shortage of justification for Tātaki Auckland Unlimited, and it’s fellow CCOs, to be rolled.”

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