Responding to reports today that Minister Brooke van
Velden is very dissatisfied with the way
the Department of Internal Affairs discharged its governance
role over Fire and Emergency New Zealand, Taxpayers’
Union spokesperson Tory Relf said:
“Since Fire and
Emergency New Zealand was formed in 2017, we have written
three reports exposing excessive costs and governance
failures, and repeatedly submitted against levy hikes. In
our last submission, we even warned that Fire and Emergency
was relying on out-of-date information — exactly what the
Minister has now discovered.”
“Our last report was
titled Up
in Smoke: Is There a Failure of Governance by the Board of
Fire and Emergency New Zealand and the Department of
Internal Affairs? We have argued for a comprehensive
review of Fire and Emergency since its creation in 2017.
Perhaps Minister van Velden might now agree.”
“This
is yet another example of institutional slackness in the
public sector. Taxpayers are left footing the bill for
waste, weak oversight, and a lack of
accountability.”
“It is well past time for the
Government to take control of the public service and start
demanding
performance.”
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