Housing New Zealand may be in some trouble. It appears as though they paid a former contractor to keep his mouth shut over financial irregularities in the organisation. The irregularities are alleged to total $2.1 million, and the contractor was allegedly paid $3000 on the condition that he did not speak to any minister, MP, or journalist, and to keep his concerns confidential from any other Housing NZ employee.
The Minister, Chris Carter, has summoned the CEO of Housing NZ and asked for an explanation.
If any of this is true it is rather shoking. A public organisation should be very careful with its finances in the first place, and any irregularities need to be investigated thoroughly, not more taxpayers money paid to hush up those who discover them.
If true, the CEO should be sacked (and possibly prosecuted as I can't really see how this is a legitimate use of public money). It concerns me as well that $2.1 million could go missing without the Minister asking any questions, but given housing is generally not considered a major priority, I could see it happening (not that it makes it excusable of course).
They should immediately get the Auditor-General in to do a complete financial audit of Housing NZ, and the State Services Commission to investigate how on earth they managed to pay a contractor to keep quiet and what policy changes need to be made to prevent this happening again.manual sis 5595
The Minister, Chris Carter, has summoned the CEO of Housing NZ and asked for an explanation.
If any of this is true it is rather shoking. A public organisation should be very careful with its finances in the first place, and any irregularities need to be investigated thoroughly, not more taxpayers money paid to hush up those who discover them.
If true, the CEO should be sacked (and possibly prosecuted as I can't really see how this is a legitimate use of public money). It concerns me as well that $2.1 million could go missing without the Minister asking any questions, but given housing is generally not considered a major priority, I could see it happening (not that it makes it excusable of course).
They should immediately get the Auditor-General in to do a complete financial audit of Housing NZ, and the State Services Commission to investigate how on earth they managed to pay a contractor to keep quiet and what policy changes need to be made to prevent this happening again.manual sis 5595
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