Aupouri Trust Board facing money worries

IN TROUBLE: Te Aupouri House in Kaitaia, closed while the trust board's financial position is assessed.

Te Aupouri Maori Trust Board has closed its offices in Kaitaia, board chairman Raymond Subritzky issuing a statement on Tuesday saying that it was facing "challenging financial circumstances" and had initiated an in-depth audit and review to fully investigate the situation.

The board had ceased a number of its operations and social service delivery programmes at 5pm on Tuesday, he added, but was working to ensure important community services were transitioned to alternative providers so that whanau would not lose access to the support they needed.

The "circumstances" had resulted in a number of job losses, and the board wished to thank its staff for their dedicated commitment to the work that Te Aupouri Maori Trust Board had undertaken on behalf of its people over the years.

The board was making every effort possible to assist its staff through "this difficult period" to help find alternative employment and provide support.

A hui would be called for iwi members once the financial audit was completed to share the findings and answer any questions.

Mr Subritzky's statement directed inquiries to trustee Henry Ihaka, who said yesterday that he was unable to provide any further detail except to say to that the board was working hard with the Ministry for Social Development to find a solution.

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Te Aupouri celebrated a $21 million Treaty of Waitangi settlement today in January 2012, redress including the return of Te Arai conservation land and farm land. The iwi was to purchase, from that quantum, its undivided share of Aupouri Crown Forest land, two Crown-owned farms (Te Raite and Cape View) and other Crown-owned properties, including part of Te Kao School (the remainder to be gifted as part of the tribe's cultural redress.

It has since been involved in a number of social programmes, including the training of young unemployed from the Far North to enable them to take up work in the Christchurch rebuild, a programme that has been widely applauded as very successful, and which earlier this year won an award as a shining example of an iwi and a government department working together.