Cabinet receiving Ministry requests for funding without adequate information?

The Koutu Nui community visioning meetings are bringing to light many issues which are certain to be helpful for the government policy advisors as they review the original plans in Te Kaveinga Nui 2007-2010 and prepare the updated version intended for 2010-2015.
Te Kaveinga Nui as launched is a very ambitious but important blueprint which maps out the vision for our education, human resource development, health services, social welfare, sports and cultural heritage, values and identity. Under social welfare is also youth development, gender issues, labour and consumer affairs, censorship and spiritual wellbeing.
However, as the architects of the national sustainable development plan (NSDP) have discovered, having a beautiful plan needs to have proper systems in place to make them a reality.
Take the Cabinet process whereby Ministers present projects from their Ministry in the hope that the Executive will approve the necessary funding. Trouble is that such requests are causing difficulty for Cabinet because they often lack detailed financial analysis or budgetary forecast on the impact of the project on other Ministries or their budget allocations or similar. This makes it very difficult to make informed decisions which will not be a liability in the future such as during the Annual Budget.
One comment from the floor was that in the past there was a committee including the Public Service Commissioner, Crown Law, Audit and the Financial Secretary who would vet submissions prior to presentation to Cabinet. but this committee was disbanded some years ago.
Robust systems are needed and surely that is the role of the Public Expenditure Review Committee and Audit (PERCA).
Comments included that even school children would know that if there is not enough money in the purse to cover overheads, that you reduce your spending and cut back on expenses to make ends meet. Spending millions on a stadium that is unlikely to be used very much or on a fuel farm that the public think is not necessary and could send the country bankrupt similar to the 1995-1996 financial meltdown.
These comments and more will be added to the Koutu Nui shadow report due to be finalized by mid December 2009 for presentation to Government. The consultation process is funding by UNESCO and is a Koutu Nui initiative after they identified ‘gaps’ in the original consultations notably with the outer islands.

Herald Issue 463 10 June
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