Trust to fight Govt over contracts

West Auckland's Te Whanau O Waipareira Trust is threatening legal action against the Ministry of Social Development over two contracts awarded to "outside" agencies.

The trust says the two contracts, for social workers in schools and a supported bail programme, breached the terms of a 1998 Waitangi Tribunal finding that the ministry should respect the trust's rangatiratanga, or leadership, of a large Maori community in West Auckland.

The contract for four social workers in nine Waitakere primary and intermediate schools was run as a joint venture between the trust and Presbyterian Support for three years, but the ministry gave it to Presbyterian Support alone after the joint venture broke up last year.

"They saw fit to go on their own," said trust chief executive John Tamihere.

The supported bail contract, providing one-to-one mentoring of 14- to 16-year-old offenders waiting for Youth Court hearings, was awarded last October to Tuakau-based Youthlink Family Trust, which provides accommodation and support for at-risk youths at Felix Donnelly College.

Mr Tamihere said he was preparing briefs of evidence for both a judicial review of the contracts in the High Court and a follow-up claim to the Waitangi Tribunal.

"I have cast-iron evidence for a judicial review to win because of the way Social Welfare has handed out contracts to its mates," he said.

"The only way for us to remedy it is for us to take High Court action and then to file a Waitangi Tribunal claim."

But he said both actions would depend on whether the new National/Act/Maori Party Government took action politically to devolve social spending to Maori agencies, as advocated at the weekend by Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia.

Mr Tamihere and Waipareira have been pushing since the 1990s for broad-based devolution that would allow them to provide "wraparound" services for troubled families who now have to deal with multiple agencies for health, education, justice and other social services.

The general manager of the trust's Wai Whanau service, Diane Tuari, said the trust could have integrated the four social workers in schools and the supported bail mentors into its existing youth services team.

"We would have those social workers out on the streets at night."

She said the trust wanted to put the school social workers into the poorest decile 1 schools, but the ministry opted to keep them in nine schools which included only one school in decile 1, two in decile 2, five in decile 3 and one in decile 4.

The ministry's deputy chief executive, Ray Smith, said it awarded both contracts, costing taxpayers "hundreds of thousands of dollars", to agencies that "best demonstrated through the tender process that [they] could fully meet the needs of this community on a competitive basis".

"The Waipareira Trust tendered for these contracts. They were unsuccessful. It is not normal for the ministry to consult with unsuccessful tenderers before awarding contracts," he said.

Presbyterian Support Northern chief executive Rod Watts said his agency decided not to renew its joint venture with Waipareira because it was "complicated" and "confusing".

His agency is now the country's largest provider of social workers in schools, employing 27 social workers in 54 schools and accounting for about a quarter of the 128 social workers in the scheme nationally.

THE DISPUTE

Waipareira says:
* It should have been consulted over two West Auckland contracts because of its local "rangatira" role.
* It could have integrated the contracts with other services to provide "wraparound" support to troubled families.
* The contracts were given to the ministry's "mates" from outside the area.

Ministry says:
* It "consults widely with Maori about the design and delivery of services".
* It awarded the contracts on merit to agencies that best showed they could meet local needs.
* It does not consult unsuccessful tenderers before awarding contracts.