Staff shortages leave fines piling up

The Government is missing out on millions of dollars in fines because the Justice Ministry does not have enough staff to chase the offenders.

Income from fines was $3.4 million below target as at April this year, National Party law and order spokesman Simon Power says, citing a ministry report he received under the Official Information Act.

The report said that although receipts for the full year were expected to fall in the target range of between $199 million and $216 million, they would be below the midpoint of $207 million.

Mr Power said many offenders were getting away without paying their fines on time, if at all, because of ministry staff shortages.

The level of overdue fines was an example of what could happen if there was any let-up in payment enforcement, he said.

In 2004-05, overdue fines totalled $341 million, compared with $320 million in 2003-04, Mr Power said.

In the report, the ministry said the lower income was "due to staff vacancies, primarily in the contact centre".

Its personnel budget was $717,000 under-spent because of "continued recruitment difficulties for the contact centre, central processing unit, collect analysis project and district and national offices".

A spokesman for the Minister for Courts, Rick Barker, said the ministry was aware of the problem.

"There are a number of things that impact on our ability to collect fines, and recruitment into the public sector when there is a competitive labour market is one of them."

The issue was part of the ministry's on-going work to improve targets.

Mr Power said it was important to send a strong message that offenders who were fined had to pay.

"People need to know there are consequences if they don't pay their fines.

"If we let this get any further out of control we take the risk that our justice system will become a joke."

- NZPA