Wananga head denies wrongdoing as inquiry set to widen

The head of Te Wananga o Aotearoa, Dr Rongo Wetere, has denied any wrongdoing by the controversial tertiary education institution.

Last night he challenged Act MP Ken Shirley to repeat his allegations of misuse of taxpayers' money outside Parliament.

Dr Wetere's statement said:

* It was "simply not true" that the Cuban-developed Greenlight numeracy and literacy course was sold to the wananga by his fiancee, Marcia Krawll.

* Twenty wananga staff enrolled in the Greenlight programme to evaluate it but no funding was claimed by those staff.

* A large fleet of cars was needed because the wananga operated nationwide.

* The wananga offered no inducements to get students to enrol in any course. However, the Tertiary Education Commission had last year approved its providing 2000 computers as a scholarship to encourage computer literacy.

Earlier yesterday, the Auditor-General's office said it was reconsidering the scope of its inquiry into the wananga after a meeting on Monday night with the Minister of Education, Trevor Mallard.

Since September the Auditor-General has been investigating potential conflicts of interest at the wananga, and Assistant Auditor-General Wendy Venter said it should be known in about two weeks if the scope of the inquiry would be widened to include the new allegations.

Meanwhile, National education spokesman Bill English said yesterday that the Government had spent $2.5 billion in the past five years on low-level tertiary courses that 70 per cent of students failed to compete.

But a spokeswoman for Mr Mallard said Mr English's figures were old and he had released them two months ago.

At the time, Steve Maharey, then minister responsible for tertiary education, said Mr English had got his facts wrong.

"Mr English quotes a 70 per cent non-completion rate for students who started diploma and certificate courses in 1999, but fails to point out that more than two-thirds of those students had dropped out by the end of 1999," he said.

"As I recall, that's when his party was last in Government."

- NZPA, POLITICAL REPORTER