Taranaki-King Country MP Barbara Kuriger has been called out for her "ignorance" of the funding rorts at Taratahi Agricultural Training Centre while she was on its board.
The centre is under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office after an independent investigation found it had delivered fewer courses than it was funded for and enrolled tutors in courses they themselves were teaching, Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) chief executive Tim Fowler confirmed in early September.
Taratahi has agreed to repay the government a total of $8.6m.
The improper enrolments occurred between 2009 and 2014. Kuriger was on the board at Taratahi from 2012 to 2014.
Which raises the obvious question: did Kuriger and the rest of the board know about this, or were they so utterly incompetent that they had a huge and ongoing failure of oversight amounting to millions of dollars a year? Kuriger owes us some answers on this - but either way, it seriously calls into question whether she is fit to be in Parliament.
Thursday, September 17, 2015
Incompetence or fraud?
Which raises the obvious question: did Kuriger and the rest of the board know about this, or were they so utterly incompetent that they had a huge and ongoing failure of oversight amounting to millions of dollars a year? Kuriger owes us some answers on this - but either way, it seriously calls into question whether she is fit to be in Parliament.