Treasury officials' bank perks set to dry up

Treasury secretary Gabriel Makhlouf said the organisation's Gifts and Hospitality Policy is being toughened up. File photo / supplied

The posh meals and gifts such as sport and theatre tickets given to key Treasury officials by large banks that lend the Government billions of dollars look set to dry up.

Treasury announced this afternoon it had strengthened its gifts and hospitality policy following a review by an independent auditor.

"The Treasury accepts and will adopt all recommendations made in the report by Deloitte, which concluded that our gifts and hospitality policy was generally consistent with State Services Commission and Office of the Auditor-General guidance and principles," Secretary Gabriel Makhlouf said.

"The recommendations have informed our new Gifts and Hospitality Policy, and we will use them to strengthen our policy and practices."

State Services Commissioner Iain Rennie said today that Treasury's record on hospitality and gifts was of concern following a recent review of various government departments' relevant policies.

While many agencies demonstrated a clear and proper focus on limiting the acceptance of gifts and hospitality, in the interests of avoiding any implications of undue influence or conflicts of interest, Mr Rennie said he had concerns "about a number of instances where some agencies do not appear to have followed what I regard as appropriate practices".

"These instances have clearly not met the standards I and New Zealanders expect of an impartial State Services. There has already been public comment about some of the entries on the Treasury's register of gifts, benefits and hospitality to this effect."

"I did have concerns about these practices and I am pleased to see that, following a review by an independent auditor, the Secretary to the Treasury has strengthened the Treasury's gifts and hospitality policy to provide clearer guidance and support for staff."

Greens co-leader Russel Norman said he was pleased by Treasury's decision to strengthen its gifts and hospitality policy. The Greens earlier this year raised concerns that about the amount of "treats" received by Treasury's Debt Management Office staff from banks including lunches, dinners and theatre and sports tickets .

The Debt Management Office is responsible for borrowing money and holds regular bond tenders where banks compete to lend money to the Government.

Dr Norman said banks extending hospitality to Treasury wanted something in return and a small change in the terms and conditions of multimillion-dollar loans to the Government could have a big influence on the final cost of borrowing to the taxpayer.

"I think the Greens did a good job to raise these issues and in spite of the Government's denials there was any real issue, actually there is and the State Services Commissioner, I think, has shown his independence that he's actually stepped up to the plate about it and said it's got to stop and it's got to change," he said.