By EUGENE BINGHAM
The Heart of the Nation project team may not receive all of the $225,000 budgeted to produce its controversial report into the cultural sector.
Associate Minister of the Arts Judith Tizard said yesterday that the Government would pay only for actual costs incurred and had asked for detailed accounts
from the project team.
Ms Tizard came under Opposition attack in Parliament yesterday for her handling of the project and the report released last week.
The team, headed by Auckland art consultant Hamish Keith, was set up in March to write a strategy for the country's cultural sector. Ms Tizard rejected the report's key recommendations of restructuring within the sector and said the team had failed to fulfil the terms of reference.
Ms Tizard told Parliament that final payments for the report were up for discussion between the panel and the Ministry of Cultural Affairs.
National's Culture and Heritage spokesman, Simon Upton, said Ms Tizard had not put enough time into setting out what the Government required from the project team. He doubted Ms Tizard had monitored the panel's work closely enough.
