The Auditor-General’s office is supposed to be the ultimate watchdog for the eN-Zed government and therefore for the eN-Zed taxpayer. The Auditor-General’s sole job is to ensure our (taxpayers’) hard-earned money is spent wisely, efficiently, and transparently – and honestly. Yet, a recent report raising alarm over Associate Education Minister David Seymour’s revamped school lunch programme leaves us asking: Who is the Auditor-General actually looking out for?
The report points out that the revamped programme is successfully saving money, around $360 million, compared to the previous government’s approach. That’s an eye-watering amount of tax-payer money to save . Instead of celebrating a massive win for eN-Zed’s fiscal sanity, the Auditor-General’s office chose to nitpick implementation speed, waste, and early nutritional benchmarks. As David Seymour rightly pointed out, it feels as though the Auditor-General would be perfectly happy if the government kept bleeding 100s of millions of taxpayers’ cash.
Once again we’re seeing civil servants behaving like they run the country and not the elected officials. Don’t they understand democracy? Look to Albania and see what happens when civil servants and politicians forget what democracy means.
If the Auditor-General is truly dedicated to protecting eN-Zed taxpayers’ incomes, why train the crosshairs on a programme actively cutting costs? Where is this same aggressive scrutiny when it comes to the real black holes of government spending?
Consider the staggering, unchecked IT spending failures at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE). Where is the urgent, front-page report on that? What about the appalling internal spending decisions across countless government departments and ministries? We regularly see public sectors funneling millions into ideological charities and NGOs, only to turn around and cry to the government for more funding because their core services are broke.
And let’s not forget the absolute pinnacle of bureaucratic absurdity: the $4 million taxpayer-funded “whale song and kauri dieback” scam. Four million dollars of taxpayer money spent on tracking whale sounds to prevent a fungal disease, an initiative so ridiculous it sounds like satire or a grubby scam. Where was the Auditor-General? Why the deafening silence on outright waste, while a programme that actually drove a hard bargain for the taxpayer gets dragged through the mud?E
eN-Zed desperately needs an Audit office that protects bloated processes and coddles upset, displaced contractors. We need an Auditor-General’s office that goes after genuine, systemic waste and dishonesty and stupidity. If they can’t (or won’t) do that, they should quit before they’re sacked.
I strongly suggest the Auditor General have a wee rewrite of his or her contract, similar to the Reserve Bank Governor’s contract in the good old days when his/her primary goal was price stability. Here’e what the Auditor-General should be tasked with: ‘The primary purpose of the Auditor General of New Zealand is to provide independent assurance to Parliament and the public that all government expenditure is allocated with absolute accuracy and propriety, ensuring that 100% of public funds is spent strictly on its intended legislative purpose.’
What do you think? Are ou a taxpayer? Are you happy to work and give money to the Government to fund whale song and kauri tree research? (I think we all know that it’s not whale song, it’s the nasty anti-kauri tree gossip among the paua and pipi commnity that’s hurting the kauri trees’ feelings.) Would you want your tax used to fund an expedition to dig up the gold at the end of the rainbow? To set up a unicorn farm? Feel free to post your comments below.
eN-Zed 