KEY POINTS:
State housing bosses rack up the equivalent of almost two state houses on taxpayer-paid credit cards each year - including a staff member who paid a parking fine and another who used the card to buy groceries and to pay for personal car repairs.
The spending was revealed among figures that showed one in every 10 of Housing New Zealand Corporation's 1000 staff have corporate American Express charge cards, which are meant to be used for business expenses.
National MP Phil Heatley, who received the information, has attacked the body for a "fast and loose attitude toward taxpayer money", which resulted in credit card bills of $318,000 in 2005/2006 and an account heading for $350,000 this year.
The average price of a state house is $194,030, based on the corporation's 67,000 properties, which are worth $13 billion.
The 102 HNZC managers have Amex cards with maximum limits of $20,000 - down from a maximum of $85,000 when Heatley started digging for information. He has taken credit for seeing the limit lowered, which the corporation rejects, and now wants spending cut back.
Support Services general manager Arun Patel told the Herald on Sunday the majority of use of the cards was appropriate. "We monitor it quite seriously. When they make the odd indiscretion in terms of personal use they repay that immediately." Patel also said the drop in limit was an internal decision and not as a result of Heatley's questions.
The highest "indiscretion" was a manager who spent $5000 on personal items and was told to repay the money. The spending included $2092 on car repairs and $1365 on groceries.
In a written statement, the corporation said the staff member was "counselled and reminded of Housing New Zealand's policy and guidelines". No other action was taken and there had been no repeat.
But the corporation did defend paying $160 for a staff member's parking fine after the manager's car was towed while he was working late. "As a special case, Housing New Zealand agreed to meet this expense."
One manager spent $37,000 over 21 months on food and accommodation developing a system for managing contract staff.
He spent 150 days away from his Napier home in the 2005/2006 financial year and stayed in Auckland, New Plymouth, Palmerston North, Wellington and Christchurch, charging food and accommodation back to the American Express card.
Other staff classed their charge card expenses as "donations/koha" - an acceptable use, according to the corporation, when working away from home and staying with friends and family. Up to $50 a night could be spent buying wine, groceries or a takeaway meal. The statement said: "This is a more cost-effective way to accommodate staff who are away from home on business."
The corporation also defended the high number of charge cards issued to employees. The statement said that of the 1000 staff, 100 were "senior managers" who often needed to make business trips between its two national offices, Manukau and Wellington, and its Porirua contact centre.
Inquiries carried out by the Herald on Sunday have found that the corporation provided inaccurate information to Heatley. Some of the charges made by staff were listed by the "wrong code in error".
Heatley said the high number of charge cards with $85,000 limits was "the worst example of folly and laxness and was always going to spark intense questioning".
"It's appalling it's taken a single inquiry from an opposition MP for them to have a major shake-up of the rules. They have an army of bureaucrats to look at this. They shouldn't be relying on one concerned taxpayer at the right place at the right time."
Heatley also warned the corporation was "walking a tightrope" in paying parking fines." Are all Government agencies now going to pay employees' parking fines if they are working overtime, or their speeding tickets, if they're late to a meeting?"
