The apparent lack of accountability of a Maori trust responsible for $243 million was questioned by a parliamentary committee yesterday.
Te Puni Kokiri's settlement policy acting manager, Andrew Rewi, told the Maori affairs committee that the Crown Forestry Rental Trust (CFRT) had $243 million in accumulated rentals.
Proceeds from Crown forest licences increased the amount by about $35 million a year, and annual interest was about $18 million.
The trust, established in 1990, holds rent from cutting rights for more than 400,000ha of former state forests that are subject to treaty claims and are being held in trust until their ownership is confirmed.
The money is invested and the interest used to help Maori prepare and negotiate treaty claims.
The trust has three Crown-appointed members and three appointed by the Maori Council-Federation of Maori Authorities.
Maori appointees are on indefinite terms, and the Crown representatives serve three-year terms.
"The Crown has no direct power, whether that be legal or otherwise, to direct or influence decisions of the trustees or to influence their interpretation of their responsibilities under the CFRT's trust deed," Mr Rewi told the committee.
When asked by Labour MP Dover Samuels who the trust was accountable to, Mr Rewi said: "Ultimately they are responsible to the beneficiaries [but] there's an issue there of the actual level in practice, the extent of the accountability."
Mr Samuels said accountability must be established because "I get tired of so-called beneficiaries of this trust ringing me up and complaining and asking me to investigate and conduct an inquiry."
National MP Doug Kidd said when he tried as a minister in the previous Government to get information on the trust he was told to choose between "minding my own business and getting lost."
- NZPA
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