MFAT comes under scrutiny

The future cost and direction of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade have been questioned in an independent performance review.

A report released by the State Services Commission (SSC) today said its review had uncovered weaknesses that were likely to affect the effectiveness of the department in the future.

"Likely cost pressures will require significant efficiencies if MFAT is to continue to operate within existing baselines," the report said.

The ministry was rated as weak with regard to the efficiency of its financial and resource management, with reviewers commenting that it must "urgently identify opportunities for cost reduction".

"These will require more than marginal trading off," the report said.

"When asked what their response would be if required to make material savings, several staff responses were along the lines of 'we would just work that much harder'. Such an approach is neither sustainable, nor strategic."

The review also addressed MFAT's international focus saying more attention needed to be paid to fast-growing converging market economies, particularly in New Zealand's region.

"With limited resources at its disposal, it will be important that New Zealand identifies and focuses on its foreign policy priorities.

"MFAT will need to develop the capability to successfully engage its key stakeholders in difficult decisions about where New Zealand's offshore effort should be focused and, most importantly, what it will not do.

"These new relationships are likely to be more resource intensive to develop and manage than our traditional partners."

At a media briefing following the release of the review's results today, MFAT chief executive John Allen said his ministry faced particularly difficult challenges.

"It covers our trade agenda, which is obviously extraordinarily rich in terms of the number of trade negotiations and activities we're undertaking," he said.

"It covers our need to engage multilaterally more effectively than we have, it covers our need to engage in a very wide range bilateral elements, and in particular in that context, it covers our need to become more effective in our engagement in the Pacific which is a particular focus of the government, and to deliver ODA more effectively.

"I think the level of ambition which the Government has for this ministry is extremely high and therefore the level of expectation is extremely high. The ministry is working to step up to meet and exceed that challenge."

Te Puni Kokiri, the Department of Conservation and Land Information New Zealand also came under the microscope in the first round of SSC reviews.

State Services Commissioner Iain Rennie said the reviews were an important tool for assessing potential problems at an early stage.

"All of these agencies are doing a very solid job, all of them have opportunities in their context to keep improving," he said.

Among those improvements, the SSC said DOC needed to develop more strategic leadership in order to assist better with treaty settlements.

Te Puni Kokiri faced several challenges, including its role in the Whanau Ora programme, and there were concerns the department's resources might become to thinly spread if its programmes were not prioritised correctly.

- NZPA