National's Northland candidate defends Te Ahu Trust role

Mark Osborne is proud of the Te Ahu Trust's work. Photo / Claire Trevett

Candidate managed money-losing community centre

National's Northland candidate, Mark Osborne, has defended his work for a community centre he set up which is now under review by the Far North District Council.

The National Business Review reported that the Te Ahu Trust, of which Mr Osborne was general manager, was being reviewed by the council after recording losses in 2013 and 2014. Mr Osborne was general manager until October.

The Te Ahu Trust is a charitable trust that is council-controlled. It received $15 million of taxpayer money to set up a community centre in Kaitaia, the Te Ahu Centre, which included conference facilities, a theatre and cafe. That recorded a $185,168 loss in the 2013 financial year and a $522,681 loss in 2014.

In a written statement yesterday, Mr Osborne said he understood from the council that it was "a positive review" assessing the relationship between trust and council to ensure the governance structure was "enabling Te Ahu to best serve Northlanders".

"I'm proud of the work Te Ahu does for our community and I'm proud of my involvement with that organisation."

National's campaign manager, Steven Joyce, said the council review had nothing to do with Mr Osborne. "My understanding is there is no relationship with Mark Osborne."

He said the campaign team had discussed the issue when it was raised in the past. "He said there's nothing to it and we've had that checked with the Far North District Council."

However, a submission Mr Osborne sent to the council in April last year raised concerns about the review. Written by trust chairman Mike Mitcalfe, it noted: "The trust is aware that a review of the relationship between council and Te Ahu has been initiated by the FNDC chief executive, but has no knowledge of the brief or scope of that review and to date has had no involvement in the review. We seek immediate involvement through our general manager [Mr Osborne] to ensure participation and transparency of process."

The same submission also raised concerns about the council underfunding the trust. It said the trust had been left out of budget decisions affecting areas it had responsibility for. One concern he raised was under-budgeting for repairs and maintenance - he said $10,000 for a facility valued at $14 million was "grossly underprovided" and asked for $50,000.

He also objected to the lack of a budget to market and promote the centre.

Mr Osborne became assets manager at the council in October, when his trust job ended.

The council started its review of the trust last year with the aim of establishing greater accountability and separating management and governance, NBR reported.