ANALYSIS: I refused to print out the 691 pages of documents sent to me by the Ministry for Pacific Peoples today.
Mainly to save the planet, but also to stop my employer investigating my excessive printing while looking into a ministry blasted by the public service watchdog for excessive spending.
The documents came after I requested an itemised list of expenditure for the farewell party they held for departing chief executive Laulu Mac Leauanae in October last year.
But instead of a nice list, I was given nearly 700 pages of emails, invoices, spreadsheets, plane tickets, travel agent quotes, draft itineraries, run sheets, and other random bits of information to trawl through.
It included questions asked during the Public Service Commission's investigation into the $39,262.22 party, which revealed the frustration they were feeling at the lack of transparency and accountability.
It's fair to say the Ministry for Pacific Peoples has poor record keeping. There are numerous notes from the Commission's investigators like "the quality is poor and it's hard to determine the totals", "Please provide a link to the invoice - we can't find" and "These documents do not record decisions made".
Most of these annotations were never answered. Not that I could see anyway, which is probably why the commission concluded there was inadequate oversight of expenditure and it wasn't consistent with a handful of policies that are in place to prevent this type of thing happening.
It's understandable that a gift is required for a departing boss. Maybe two or a third at a push. But certainly not 21 gifts costing the taxpayer $7555.49:
- $225.49 for a corned beef box
- $980 for Kura Art Gallery voucher
- $300 to a Tongan group as a partial contribution for a carving
- $4000 for Samoan groups to make a large Siapo (tapa cloth) and six ie toga (fine mats)
- $330 for a Tokelau necklace, hat and head lei
- $220 for a Tuvalu titi men's dancing skirt, carved vaka, and a fan
- $1700 for a Cook Island pair of Pare (male and female), a tivaevae, and a custom-made ei kaki
- $250 for a Niue canoe.
The commission says on being made aware of the money spent on gifts, Laulu immediately repaid the $7555.49 and returned all the gifts.
His farewell was actually two farewells. He had a community one during the afternoon for non-ministry guests, and one in the evening for only those at the Ministry for Pacific Peoples.
They were both held at the same venue: The Wharewaka or Pipitea Marae and Function Centre in Wellington.
The venue hire cost $2130.52 which included internet, tablecloths, and a cleaning fee. On top of that was 'event support' which cost $5465.52 and included the stage, AV hire, event manager, and event coordinator.
There's no confirmed number of attendees to each farewell and the commission's frustrations are evident in the documents but from what I can gather, there were 115 at the first farewell and 167 at the later one (115 had RSVP'd but 167 turned up).
However, they catered for far more than both farewells combined. They spent $8925 on 350 dinners which included Samoan chop suey, a piece of smoked chicken, a palusami croquette, potato salad, a mini coconut bun, and a soft drink. These were pre-packed and it's not clear if they were just for the second farewell or for the first one too.
There was further catering costing $2094 available at the second farewell, which the documents say was to comply with alcohol laws because alcohol was available to purchase.
Despite most of the ministry's staffers already being in Wellington for an all-day fono/meeting, there were still travel expenses for the farewells that totalled $5806.22 covering airfares, airfare change fees, and Ubers.
There was accommodation on top of this too which came to $1337.42.
Then there's the final piece of the puzzle. The 'Miscellaneous' section which comes to $5948.05.
As far as I can tell, here are the expenses that fit into this category and are listed but uncosted:
- Plant hire
- New uniforms/attire including material and tailoring
- Flowers/flower garlands
- Drummers
- Photography
- Coaches from Movenpick Hotel to Wharewaka
- Shuttles every half hour from Wharewaka to Movenpick Hotel.
There are likely to be more expenses that fit into this category but given the state of the documents, it's hard to tell.
So there you go. That's how you splash nearly $40,000 on two farewell parties for a boss who's just going across the road to a new job as the chief executive of the Ministry for Arts, Culture, and Heritage, and get named and shamed by the public service watchdog in the process.
Lloyd Burr is a Newshub political reporter.
