Fourth Ka Awatea contract faces review

• Published date: 01 October 2022

Te Puni Kōkiri (the Ministry for Māori Development) is “looking into” a $28,000 grant made to Ka Awatea Services (KAS) from its “Rangatahi [young people] Suicide Prevention Fund” in April, 2021

Earlier this month, Public Service Commissioner Peter Hughes also announced a more comprehensive probe of government contracts to Ormsby-family related firms. It will include the Te Puni Kōkiri (TPK) grant, and a series of other contracts, and also establish whether other contracts exist.

The value of contracts awarded to KAS, and a second Ormsby-family-related consultancy, by government agencies in late 2020 and early 2021 total more than $230,000 (excluding GST).

Three contracts were for work which was awarded on a sole source basis.

The agencies already conducting internal reviews of the contracts are: the Crown housing agency Kainga Ora, the Department of Conservation, and the Ministry for the Environment, which has completed and released its work.

Mahuta and other government ministers both welcomed and indeed recently requested Hughes’ scrutiny.

However, it was first called for by the National Party spokesman for Public Services, Simeon Brown, in August, and pressure had been building for more fulsome scrutiny of the contracts for months.

Mahuta was associate minister for three of the four agencies that awarded contracts to the Ormsby-related firms, although her spokesperson and agency officials have said she has not had purview over the areas of work covered in the family-related contracts.

Mahuta has said she’s been “assiduous” in declaring and managing conflicts of interest “in accordance with the Cabinet Manual” and that she had “no say in approving at contract level”.

The Public Service Commission’s (PSC) jurisdiction is over the public service and does not extend to ministers.

Chris Hipkins, Minister for Public Services, said the Government’s concern is at the departmental level.

National’s Brown said the fact that all contracts awarded to Mahuta’s family members “are under internal review is further reason why the Public Service Commission must...