Education Minister Chris Hipkins seeks briefing on Wintec legal fees

Wintec council chairman Barry Harris believes there are no grounds for a ministerial inquiry into Wintec. Photo / Alan Gibson

Education Minister Chris Hipkins has asked the Tertiary Education Commission to provide a briefing on Wintec following revelations around the organisation's level of spending.

The minister is responding to a request from former Wintec HR adviser Sheryl Richards at the weekend for him to launch a ministerial inquiry into the organisation.

The Herald revealed on Friday that Wintec had spent $174,212 on lawyers to fight media and today that it had been involved in 45 confidential settlements over a nine-year period.

In a statement Hipkins confirmed he had asked for a briefing and would not comment before he had received it.

TEC chief executive Tim Fowler said yesterday it had no responsibility or jurisdiction for employee related matters at any tertiary education organisation (TEO). That was a matter for the council of each TEO to oversee, in conjunction with the chief executive and the senior management team.

"We have an interest in the effective governance of the TEOs we fund and we make it very clear our expectations of the role they must play."

Wintec council chairman Barry Harris told the Herald last night he had not been contacted by the minister, but had been keeping the TEC updated.

Harris did not believe there was any basis for an inquiry.

He said he was aware of a number of assertions about how the organisation had been managed in the past around restructuring, but he had seen no evidence of wrongdoing or improper behaviour by anyone at the organisation.