From the moment on Tuesday that the Auditor General delivered a report on the administration of parole, it has been obvious that the head of the Corrections Department must resign. Obvious, it seems, to everyone but him. Barry Matthews' stated determination to stay at his post is untenable.
It does him no credit to insist he is staying to put things right. If he was capable of doing that he surely would have done so after the murder committed by a parolee, Graeme Burton, two years ago. That was not the first time the monitoring of parole has let the country down; it was just the last straw.
The tragedy should have caused the department to throw all available resources into the identification and monitoring of any paroled offender with a record of extreme violence. A shortage of parole officers, or their distaste for a tougher moni-toring regime, are not excuses.
And if the department's best efforts could not find enough officers, it was up to Mr Matthews to tell his minister so, long ago - not wait until the Auditor General looks into what has been done as a result of the Burton case and finds that in almost no cases are the required monitoring standards being met.
No wonder Justice Minister Judith Collins pointedly refuses to express confidence in her chief executive. No wonder the Prime Minister does the same. How sad that a previous minister, Clayton Cosgrove, should say the minister risks handing Mr Matthews a case for compensation.
If a departmental head does not know how to do the decent thing in these circumstances, public service standards are at a low ebb. The State Services Commission should not take any more of the 10 days given it to find who is responsible. It knows where the buck stops. So does Mr Matthews. He must go.
