Damning Report On LAV Acquisitions Project Released

The Foreign Affairs and Defence Select Committee has issued a damning report on the purchase of 105 Light Armoured Vehicles for the New Zealand Army and has confirmed findings of the Auditor General in 2001, National Defence Spokesperson Max Bradford said today.

"The financial review of the 2001/02 defence vote has identified some very concerning aspects about the LAV acquisition process, to the point where National believes that the whole project should be recommitted.

"The events since September 11 reinforce the findings by the Auditor General that corners were cut in the acquisition process by the Army. The select committee report says 'the LAV acquisition project has been a sorry chapter for major capital acquisition projects in New Zealand. There can be no place for dysfunction relations within the Army and between it and rest of the NZDF'.

"It is now time for the Minister of Defence to act in the best interests of all New Zealanders and recommit the project for a new assessment.

"Cross examination by the Committee of the Chief of Defence Force showed New Zealand no longer lives in an 'incredibly benign strategic environment' as Helen Clark claimed when releasing the Government's defence policy last year. The world has changed and with it the appropriateness of the LAV purchase.

"There is still some unfinished business on the dysfunctionality of the Army. So far the Minister has been deafeningly silent about the outcome of the Carruthers Inquiry which is already two months late.

"The public can fairly ask whether the Minister is simply trying to bury another report which will reflect badly on his stewardship of the defence portfolio," Mr Bradford said.

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