Corrections chief begins review of head office

Corrections chief executive Barry Matthews has begun a review of his department's head office as part of a drive to shake up the troubled agency.

Mr Matthews said yesterday redundancies were not expected but it was possible some staff could be redeployed out into the field, where there were shortages.

The department is already under investigation for multi-million-dollar prison budget blow-outs and its culture was heavily criticised in an Ombudsmen's report last year.

It found a "gulf" existed between head office and frontline staff when it came to understanding prison problems, with the former refusing to acknowledge the extent of them.

The Ombudsmen believed frontline staff, they said.

The report said that while the department's public documents suggested it was meeting most of its high ideals, this was not the case.

Mr Matthews acknowledged the findings and it was important that "head office is not seen as distant from the people delivering the services".

He wanted clearer lines of accountability, better integration within the department and to identify gaps and duplications.

Head office redundancies - there are nearly 400 staff - were not expected.

"But I wouldn't rule out the possibility that if we identified some positions that were duplications, we would look at where we could best deploy those resources, primarily looking firstly to the field, in which we have some shortages." Head office could be trimmed in size, he conceded, "but there may be areas requiring greater resourcing within head office. It's not a cost-cutting thing. It's more about operating as efficiently as we can.

"I'm not anticipating there will be a radical change, but let's wait and see."

Corrections Minister Damien O'Connor said it was "important that they remain focused on the reintegration objective.

"There are no major areas of concern, but co-operation between the three different areas [within the department] is really important and I keep re-emphasising that.

"Any large organisation from time to time runs the risk of disconnecting with what is happening at the coalface, but I don't think Corrections is any better or worse than any other areas."

PSA national secretary Richard Wagstaff said the union was pleased it would be involved in the review, which will be conducted by an independent consultant, yet to be appointed.

There had long been too much separation between business units within the department and "as they say it's led to a 'silo-ised' approach".

"We've identified that issue for a number of years. Trying to get better co-ordination between all the different parts. Even the way they do collective bargaining, there's several collective agreements in one department. All that reflects a department which is dispersed, not integrated."

New Zealand First spokesman Ron Mark and Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples welcomed the review but National spokesman Simon Power said it was "pathetic" - a review of the whole department was needed.