Auditor-General's Te Wananga o Aotearoa report damning

Hon. Ken Shirley Wednesday, 7 September 2005

Press Releases - Tertiary Education

The Auditor-General's report into the activities of Te Wananga o Aotearoa that has been released for consultation amongst interested parties slams the Labour Government for allowing a gross wastage of substantial amounts of public monies, ACT MP Ken Shirley revealed today.

"While the Crown agencies NZQA and the Tertiary Education Commission carry most of the direct flak, it is clear that those bodies were implementing political directives to shower the Wananga with enormous amounts of taxpayers' money," Mr Shirley said.

"The extraordinary growth in funding from $5 million in the year 2000 to $239 million last year is unprecedented and highlights the irresponsible manner in which Labour pursued its 'Closing the Gaps' policy.

"Regrettably, the terms of reference establishing the Auditor- General's enquiry specifically excluded the examination of the integrity of enrolments and the content and outputs of the courses. What we saw was tens of thousands of students enrolled in highly spurious courses all designed to maximise the capture of taxpayers' money.

"The details of this gross wastage should be made available to voters in advance of next week's election, but it seems the Auditor-General's report has been carefully timed to be publicly released following the election," Mr Shirley said.

ENDS

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