April 27, 2017
Taura Whiri books improving
The chief executive of Te Taura Whiri says its books are better than they look.
The Maori Language Commission was grilled by parliament’s Maori affairs committee after the Audit Office highlighted problems in the way it presented its accounts.
Ngahiwi Apanui says it was the latest of several years of poor audit reports.
That reflected the fact there had been five people in the chief executive’s role in the two years before he took over, and there was also uncertainty over the likely transfer of funding and functions to the new Maori language body Te Matawai.
A $2 million under-spend in its budget was because of the way project payments can be staggered over more than one financial year.
He says he held back research money that was to be spent on finding out New Zealand’s attitudes towards te reo Maori.
"When we looked at it we thought, okay there's the NZ Attitudes and Values survey, there's Te Mangai Paho doing attitudes work, Maori TV is doing attitudes work and Te Puni Kokiri, so why are we throwing a million dollars down a black hole? why don't we just work with them and see what we can come up with. That's what we have been doing. The NZ Attitudes and Values survey has been incredibly valuable to us but we haven't had to spend a million dollars to get that information," he says.
Ngahiwi Apanui says as a crown agency rather than a government department Te Taura Whiri can accrue money from year to year, so it does not need to spend all its money the year it is budgeted.
FULL INTERVIEW WITH NGAHIWI APANUI
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