Opposition attack bounty scheme

By KEVIN TAYLOR political reporter

A Government programme that pays bounty hunters up to $1000 for each Maori and Pacific Island child recruited for preschools should be axed, say opposition parties.

The scheme, called the Promoting Participation Project, which began in 2001, was attacked by National and Act yesterday for being race-based.

The Weekend Herald revealed that the scheme, which has cost $5.86 million so far, has run into problems with some contractors claiming the money for "phantom" children and children already at school.

The Government has admitted that loose contracts and "poorly performing" organisations meant some of the money paid is now in dispute.

Education Ministry audits identified serious problems, including claims from contractors for phantom children, whom authorities have been unable to verify, and claims made for children already in preschool or in a few cases in primary school.

In one case a contractor rang centres to get the names of children and then claimed payments for them.

As well, some contracts in 2001 and 2002 did not specify how long a child had to be at the centre before payments could be claimed.

A spokeswoman for Education Minister Trevor Mallard said yesterday that the minister was briefed in 2002 on the issue and directed that contracts be better monitored.

"Those contracts were never renewed and those contractors were never rehired. The types of contracts in existence then no longer exist."

The spokeswoman said the programme was introduced because Maori and Pacific participation rates were a lot lower than the rest of the population, and no "bounty hunters" were operating.

But National education spokesman Bill English said a National Government would not run bounty payments for anybody and paying $1000 a head was ridiculous.

"The Government still won't learn the lessons that if you give any group of people strong financial incentives to cheat, then they'll cheat."

What bothered him was that these stories gave the whole idea of educational improvement a bad name.

"The intention of lifting Maori and Pacific participation in education is a good one, but it's not as easy as buying it. The Government seems to think it can just buy this stuff."

Mr English said the programme was another example of race-based funding that would go under National.

Opposition MPs questioned in Parliament last week a Maori "sing-along" radio course run by the Eastern Institute of Technology and a twilight golf course offered by Tairawhiti Polytechnic.

It was revealed that two of the 7415 enrolments for the sing-along course were NZ First MPs Ron Mark and Edwin Perry, who were recruited late one night in a Rotorua burger bar.

Act education spokeswoman Deborah Coddington also called for the early childhood scheme to be scrapped.

She had been asking parliamentary questions since last year about the issue and the answers had not satisfied her.

"There's been no follow-up to see how long they stay enrolled.

"There's been no cross-checking to see if they enrolled in two different centres or re-enrolled.

"It just seems to be turn up, tick the box, and collect your money and no checks to see if it's doing what's intended."