Auditors lash Maori TV funders

A damning Audit Office report has revealed how Te Mangai Paho (TMP) put at risk $1 million to produce programming, some of which will never be aired on television.

The Maori broadcast funding agency appeared before the Maori affairs select committee yesterday and TMP chairman Wira Gardiner told the MPs it was getting its house in order.

The extended audit included a look at four "non-performing contracts" that showed TMP had handed over money without checking the production companies were capable of doing the work.

Once the cheques had been cashed there was little, if any, monitoring of progress before the companies folded or defaulted on their contracts.

National's Maori affairs spokesman, Gerry Brownlee, said the programmes were never going to air, but a TMP official said a large number of the shows were handed over or were being completed by other producers.

The children's quiz show Te Wero (Dreamtime Entertainment/ Te Aratai Film and Television Productions) received $272,500 of a $300,000 contract before TMP issued a default notice.

The Audit Office said there had been ineffective monitoring of costs, even when TMP was notified that it was running over budget.

TMP finance manager Thomas Hood said the series had been substantially completed by Dreamtime and was being finished off by the Maori Television Service.

Kai Ora, a Dreamtime cooking programme, received only $83,000 of a $260,000 contract before TMP pulled the plug on it.

However, the Audit Office report said proper monitoring of Dreamtime would have seen none of the money handed over.

Mr Hood said Dreamtime had dipped into the Kai Ora funding for the over-budget Te Wero and TMP was considering recovering the money.

Slightly Off Beat productions received $340,000 of a $400,000 contract for animation reversioning before the company placed itself in voluntary liquidation. There was little monitoring despite the company's inexperience in the area.

Mr Hood said 50 of the 100 cartoon scripts had been received and others were completing the work. Liquidators had advised it wasn't worth pursuing money owed.

Toro Mai received $250,000 of a $1.4 million contract before TMP took action over a lack of progress.

The Audit Office said the lack of documentation meant none of the money should have been paid at all.

Mr Hood said $200,000 had been returned and the producer had undertaken to replace the balance.

Mr Gardiner told the select committee that TMP had been through a period of enormous upheaval while operating under resource constraints. More than half of the 31 recommendations from the audit had been implemented.

The problems of poor contracting and monitoring had been solved though TMP was having problems finding a new chief executive and was short-staffed.

TMP was working in a "fledgling industry" and had to encourage people working on tight budgets, while ensuring accountability for taxpayers' money, Mr Gardiner said.

The agency has had a troubled history, but Mr Gardiner said the audit found TMP's funding allocation processes to be "reasonably robust".

Where money went

Some aborted projects TMP funded:

Cartoon scripts: $340,000.

Children's quiz show: $272,500.

Cooking programme: $83,000.

- NZPA