Just because you give something a flash Maorified name and merge everything into one doesn’t mean it will all be a success. Especially if it is a Labour Party idea suggesting that mergers and centralisation of control will deliver cost savings. Yet that is precisely what has happened at the new merged mega polytech laughably called Te Pukenga, which means The Skilled. The only thing Labour, and Chris Hipkins in particular, are skilled at is putting out fires with gasoline.
Leaderless, well behind schedule, and sinking into a $110 million black hole.
The fortunes of Te Pukenga, the country’s new merged mega polytech are in dire straits before the organisation has even properly begun functioning.
A damning memo sent from Tertiary Education Commission deputy chief executive Gillian Dudgeon to Education Minister Chris Hipkins paints a very black picture of Te Pukenga’s fortunes – and provides illumination on the possible reason for the recent mysterious departure of chief executive Stephen Town.
Stuff
I’d be more brutal than that…leaderless and rudderless. The rationale/excuse for the mega-merger according to the Government was that the sector had lost $53 million in 2017. So what Hipkins claimed was the ‘solution’ has led to the loss doubling. Throwing gasoline on a fire hoping to put it out.
Dudgeon’s grim memo to Hipkins – which is dated May 16 but was published on the commission’s website late last week – sets out the details of Te Pukenga’s troubles in stark detail.
The organisation’s financial situation was a “significant concern”, with the Te Pukenga group forecasting an at-least $110m full-year deficit.
“This is $53.5m worse than budget ($56.5m deficit) and is predominantly due to lower provider-based enrolments,” she said.
Stuff
Hipkins’ great reforms have doubled the size of the problem, not reduced it. The problems are so bad that their highly paid chief executive has now pulled a sickie and is nowhere to be found.
Some parts of the memo deemed commercially sensitive had been censored before release, including mention of a figure to which the $110m deficit could further balloon due to “rising cost pressures”.
Of course it will rise. This Government believes that throwing good money after bad will solve everything. As we have seen from Kiwibuild to ghost trains, to mental health spending, it’s all they do.
Then from Ardern on down all we hear is that ‘results aren’t matching their expectations’.
“I’m concerned the MVP doesn’t have enough emphasis on immediate financial sustainability issues,” he wrote.
“I’d like an urgent update on what Te Pukenga is doing to trim costs now in response to lower enrolments. I’d like to see a plan for some early wins re: network efficiencies ASAP.”
Stuff
These clowns are the ultimate in command and control economies, but lack the skills from the ministers to actually ensure that key deliverables and milestones are met. Their stock answer is to say they are concerned that their expectations aren’t being met. They think that there literally are levers to pull and things happen magically as a result. Listen to their words: they talk all the time about pulling levers.
In response to Stuff inquiries, Hipkins said he had “made my expectations on Te Pukenga clear and I know they are working hard to achieve the outcomes we all want.
“It’s a large and complex transition, and TEC and the Ministry of Education have been keeping a very close eye on it, as you’d expect with a project of this kind.
Stuff
See, the words of a Minister who has no actual idea, except that he has talked sternly to the organisation that now has no boss.
If they are screwing up a mega merger like this then imagine what catastrophes we are going to hear about in a year’s time with the new health regime they’ve put in place. Imagine the carnage from Three Waters.
These clowns are unfit to run the meat raffle at the local bowling club, much less manage “a large and complex transition” like health, hospitals or water infrastructure.
Sadly, this is just a taste of what is to come, except with health and water the size of the coming screw up will be a whole order of magnitude worse and cost billions not millions.
If it looks like a fish, smells like a fish and tastes like a fish, it is a fish and so it is with mismanagement. The shame of it is the individuals concerned have had years and years of epic high salaries, and their mismanagement has been covered by ratepayers’ and taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars. This is no different other than the incompetence and mismanagement rests not just with the bureaucrats but also with the executive, from the Prime Minister down.
And the election is still more than a year away.
See these eyes so red Red like jungle burning bright Those who feel me near Pull the blinds and change their minds It's been so long Still this pulsing night A plague I call a heartbeat Just be still with me Ya wouldn't believe what I've been through You've been so long Well it's been so long And I've been putting out the fire with gasoline Putting out the fire With gasoline
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