Axe to swing on police budget

A secret plan outlining $36 million of cuts to the police budget has been leaked to the Herald on Sunday.

Police are embarking on a huge restructuring of their headquarters operations in Wellington and district offices.

The leaked plan was for a team of consultants, some charging up to $390 an hour, to slice off parts of the NZ Police and assign their jobs to other Government departments.

Police shelved the $1.3m plan submitted by accounting giant PriceWaterhouseCoopers, because it was unsolicited.

But now police are to embark on their own cuts - and PWC is expected to be among those invited to tender for the work.

Police headquarters confirmed on Friday that it had asked other companies to bid for the chance to carry out the same style of review.

Chief media liaison Jon Neilson said all Government agencies had funding constraints. "Police are endeavouring to ensure maximum levels of service are produced from our current resource base. The tender relates to such work."

A decision on the present tender would be made next month. He said companies were being asked to provide "professional support on looking at how governance, corporate services and operational support could be made more efficient and effective".

The PWC plan was sent to Deputy Commissioner Viv Rickard and marked "strictly confidential".

PWC has detailed knowledge of how the police headquarters and outlying structures operate after carrying out a major review following the Commission of Inquiry into Police Conduct.

PWC partner Debbie Francis led that review, submitted it in November and followed up with an incisive review of the failings of the police structure.

She wrote that police had doubled up and overlapped, creating "unnecessary cost" and there was "significant opportunity to rationalise these functions and reduce headcount". Police wanted a complete review to put money back in the front line.

Francis also said police handled tasks better left to other agencies, including overseeing prisoners, commercial vehicle regulation and traffic tickets.

Savings had been estimated at between $26m and $36m of the police's $1.5b budget.

Police Association president Greg O'Connor said he was cautious of a review, although, "that's not to say we can't be more efficient". He would be concerned to see consultants with no understanding of police work carrying out a review.