Auditor-General Lyn Provost says more work needs to be done on the business case for a $100 million restructuring of AgResearch, the country's largest Crown Research Institute.
She looked into the matter after receiving a complaint in July from Labour MPs David Parker, David Clark, and Clare Curran about how the restructuring, dubbed Future Footprint, was being handled.
The restructuring announced in 2013 has been characterised as a once-in-a-generation reconfiguration of the research and science infrastructure. It is being sold as a modernisation but the plan to centralise operations in Lincoln and Palmerston North, while cutting staff at Invermay near Mosgiel and Ruakura near Hamilton have been controversial.
Provost said an October 2012 business case was sufficient to support decisions to move to the next stages of Future Footprint planning but that an updated business case was now needed.
The Labour MPs have alleged staff are walking because of a botched restructuring but the Auditor-General found there has been a small reduction in the number of AgResearch's scientists and technicians between 2011 and 2014.
