Watchdog Warns Of Reputational Damage From Failure To Meet Treaty Settlement Obligations

Russell
Palmer, Political Reporter

The
Auditor-General has criticised the public sector over a lack
of planning, monitoring and accountability for keeping to
commitments laid down in Treaty settlement laws.

John
Ryan found “many public organisations do not properly plan
how they will meet their commitments, nor do they prioritise
sufficient resources to do so. Many do not have effective
processes for monitoring whether they are meeting their
commitments”.

He pointed to He Korowai Whakamana, a
Cabinet-approved framework aimed at strengthening oversight
and monitoring for Treaty settlements, saying it had
improved transparency and helped identify and resolve issues
with providing redress.

But despite some “isolated
examples of good practise”, public organisations audited
were “not yet consistently meeting their commitments or
supporting settlements’ overall intent”.

This would
deny opportunities to post-settlement groups, and the
reputational damage could make it harder for the public
sector to achieve the intent of settlements and improve the
relationship with iwi and hapū.

He pointed to a lack
of accountability and monitoring, saying it was
“unacceptable that public organisations have not fully
appreciated Treaty settlements’ complexity or adequately
recognised the importance of meeting their commitments
consistently and promptly”, and warning that over many years
a tolerance of that lack had built up.

Ryan also noted
the number of settlements had effectively doubled each
decade between 1989 and 2020, “and this has increased the
volume and complexity of public organisations’
responsibilities”.

“Today, about 150 public
organisations have about 12,000 individual contractual and
legal commitments under about 80 settlements with about 70
groups. To date, $2.738 billion of financial and commercial
redress has been transferred through settlements.”

He
made nine recommendations to improve the sector
response:

• Te Puni Kōkiri, working with other
  public organisations as appropriate, develop a framework to
  guide public organisations to achieve settlements’ holistic
  intent
• All public organisations with settlement
  commitments review how they plan to meet and monitor their
  commitments
• Responsible Ministers, the Public
  Service Commission, and the governing bodies of Crown
  entities, local authorities, and other non-core Crown
  agencies with settlement commitments strengthen expectations
  on public organisations about meeting their commitments in
  performance agreements with chief executives and in other
  relevant mechanisms
• Land Information New Zealand
  works to ensure that there is a system in place so that
  right of first refusal memorials are correctly placed on
  land titles
• The Public Service Commission and the
  governing bodies of Crown entities, local authorities, and
  other non-core Crown agencies strengthen ongoing development
  for chief executives so that they can lead their
  organisations to effectively meet settlement
  commitments
• Te Puni Kōkiri consider improvements to
  the quality and accuracy of the information that Te Haeata
  collects and reports
• All public organisations with
  settlement commitments improve the information that their
  annual reports provide about their progress in meeting their
  commitments, including by clearly explaining:
• Te
  Puni Kōkiri and the Public Service Commission work
  together, and with others as needed, to consider how to
  extend He Korowai Whakamana to relevant Crown entities,
  local authorities, and other non-core Crown agencies, to
  ensure that:
• Te Puni Kōkiri regularly assess the
  public sector’s progress with meeting settlement
  commitments, whether it is achieving each settlement’s
  holistic intention, and any significant risks and
  achievements, and:

– regularly report that
assessment to the Minister for Māori Crown Relations and
other responsible Ministers; and

– report on those
matters annually to the Māori Affairs Select
Committee

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