Te Aupouri welcomes Minister's response

The chairman of Te Runanga Nui o Te Aupouri, the entity set up to receive the Aupouri Treaty settlement, has welcomed the Minister of Maori Affairs' appointment of a statutory manager and investigation into the financial activities of the Aupouri Maori Trust Board (Aupouri Trust Board facing money worries, August 27).

Rick Witana said the trust board faced a very unfortunate and concerning set of circumstances, and it was essential that a full financial audit be conducted.

The runanga would take control of all Aupouri assets and responsibilities from the trust board 60 working days after the final reading of Te Hiku Settlement Bill, scheduled for Wednesday next week.

"We need to know how these events will impact on our iwi heading forward into the future after settlement," Mr Witana said.

"The runanga will inherit the legacy of the trust board, so the existing board's financial position has to be reconciled to ensure the best possible platform is available for the runanga to use.

"Until settlement occurs we don't have the statutory ability to step in and investigate or contribute to the issues at the trust board," he added.

"In many ways we've been hamstrung in terms of our ability to respond. However we have been in close dialogue with the board as this problem has unfolded, and we have been providing whatever assistance our trust deed has allowed at this time.

"With the Minister stepping in to appoint a statutory manager there is hopefully more scope for us to work closely with him to fully understand the problems and find solutions.

"Businesses rise and fall all the time, however we have to understand our position prior to settlement, and as a priority there needs to be a consolidation of the existing trust board business so that as an iwi and runanga we can begin the new post-settlement phase for Aupouri with a clean slate.

"It is time to put the old net away, as the saying goes: Ka pu te ruha, ka hao te rangatahi - when the old net is worn out, the new net goes fishing."

The trust board came under ministerial investigation last week, after it closed its offices in Kaitaia, laid off staff and began looking for new providers for its social services. Those services are understood to include school-based social work across the Far North, whanau-based social work and children's literacy programmes in Kaitaia, and training unemployed Far North youth to work in the Christchurch rebuild.

Maori Development Minister Te Ururoa Flavell announced his investigation less than 24 hours after trust board chairman Raymond Subritzky said the organisation was facing "challenging financial circumstances" and had begun its own audit, amid government concerns that debt could eat into the tribe's hard-won Treaty settlement.

Mr Flavell said he had acted after he was contacted by Mr Subritzky and the runanga. When the iwi's Treaty settlement is completed, the board will be dissolved, with its assets and liabilities absorbed by the new runanga. Mr Flavell said both he and Treaty Settlements Minister Chris Finlayson were concerned the runanga could be disadvantaged by inheriting a large debt it had not created.

He believed the debt was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. There was no allegation of fraud. "But I will leave that to a good forensic investigation, starting as soon as possible, so this does not get in the road of a successful Te Hiku settlement."

Mr Flavell said he knew of only five previous occasions when a Minister had investigated a Maori trust board, "so it's fairly serious."

Trust board spokesman Henry Ihaka did not wish to speculate on the cause of the problem or the sum involved until the board had a clearer understanding of the situation.

"But businesses succeed and businesses fail without any underhandedness, sometimes because people make the wrong decisions. At this stage that's what we think has happened, but it's a complex situation," he said.

Mr Flavell's announcement of a ministerial investigation was a relief, he added. The board was looking forward to working with an interim manager with the skills and expertise needed.

The board was providing support for 12 to 15 staff who were in a "distressing situation." He hoped they would be hired by a new service provider.

"Our people are skilled and passionate in what they do, so we're very disappointed in what's happened," he said.