My inquiry into Te Wānanga o Aotearoa (TWOA) found practices that are unacceptable for a public entity. I found poor record-keeping and a consistent lack of documentation. What documentation I did see was often incomplete.
Three themes were common to many of the activities I looked at:
- poor decision-making practices for significant expenditure;
- inadequate identification and management of conflicts of interest; and
- unacceptable practices in senior management expenses concerning international travel and credit card expenditure.
Key Results
Practices like those discussed in my report can be very damaging to the credibility of the public entity involved. It is not in anyone’s best interests that they recur, whether at TWOA or anywhere else. I encourage central government agencies to consider carefully whether further guidance for, and monitoring of, tertiary education institutions is appropriate.