Audit office releases terms of reference for Maori trust audit

An audit of a Maori funding provider ordered by the Ministry of Education is to have wide-ranging terms of reference.

The Office of the Auditor-General today itemised six specific issues related to the Maori Education Trust to be examined.

The inquiry would also encompass "such other matters arising from the inquiry as the Auditor-General considers it desirable to report on", Assistant Auditor-General Terry McLaughlin said.

The trust aims to encourage Maori into tertiary education and distributes more than $6 million in scholarships a year.

When it announced the audit last week, the ministry said it was not prompted by any suggestion of fraud.

But its timing, so close to the Government's apparent policy re-think on race-based funding initiatives, annoyed the trust.

The Government has hinted at a possible review of some Maori scholarships.

Trust board member Pita Sharples has said the audit would prove the trust was well-managed.

"It will show not only have we been squeaky clean and done a good job of administering it but it will show the benefits which have accrued," he said.

This inquiry will:

* examine the role of the ministry, and its oversight of the scholarship programmes, including the internal control environment operating within the trust;

* identify the funding arrangements for the scholarship programmes, and determine their basis and purpose;

* examine the process by which each funding arrangement was made and whether good practice was complied with;

* determine whether funding has been applied in accordance with the relevant appropriations, statutory authority, or other requirements;

* review for each scholarship programme the appropriateness of the arrangements the ministry had to monitor the implementation and performance of the programme, and the effectiveness of that monitoring; and

* identify for each scholarship programme whether the trust has performed and/or complied with its obligations with respect to the award of scholarships in which the Crown has an interest.

The auditor-general will report to Education Secretary Howard Fancy.

- NZPA