Incompetence and corruption swept under carpet

 

The settlement from the Auditor-General’s Office with Kaipara District Council is unexceptional, to say the least.

This is the government agency that allowed clean audits to go through every year for five years, while the Mangawhai sewerage scheme continued to blow out in cost.

A paltry $5 million settlement will do little to ease the burden of ratepayers who, through their council and no fault of their own, have to wrestle with a blown out debt of $74m.

Not only did the Auditor-General’s Office fail to do its job, so too did the former Northland MP Mike Sabin and the Kaipara commissioners, and never at any time did the government do anything for the ratepayers after the scheme’s cost rose to $63m.

The commissioners did not even move to take action against the managers of the project Beca Carter Hollings and Ferner Ltd, yet they were reappointed by the government for another term.

Mr Sabin sponsored the highly undemocratic process of retrospective legislation to validate Kaipara’s rates, at the time saying the Auditor-General’s Office should settle the costs or losses.

The legislation was used as a device to brush incompetence and corruption under the carpet. New Zealand First was the only present Parliamentary party that did not support this Bill. We supported the stance taken by the residents to expose the wrongful actions of the council in incurring huge debt with next to no community consultation.

Let’s not forget that in 2003 the Kaipara District Council advised Mangawhai residents that the cost of the scheme would be no more than $10.8m. This figure blew out and the council borrowed $57.978 million – effectively leaving the council with a debt of approximately $80m.

Former Prime Minister Norman Kirk once pointed out to MPs that it was not their job to defend the government department from the people; instead their role was to defend the people from the department.

He was right. So instead of defending the ratepayers, politicians rushed to defend the Auditor-General’s Office and collectively swept all the wrongdoing under the carpet by voting for retrospective legislation.

The National government has wiped its hands of the problem and there’s been no attempt to try and renegotiate the loans or lessen the load. This $5m settlement will hardly dent the debt.