Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust Public Funding Review

The independent review of financial controls operating within Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust was released on 18 March 2014. The independent report was undertaken by Ernst and Young. The report is being released to the public along with two Education Reports to Education Minister Hekia Parata from the Ministry.

The independent review of the financial internal controls operating within the Trust, against the Terms of Reference published by the Ministry on 16 October 2013. The terms of reference for the independent review can be found in the Ernst and Young report.

Timeline

  • 15 October 2013 – Minister of Education, Hon Hekia Parata and Associate Minister of Education, Hon Dr Pita Sharples, meet with Trust Board to discuss allegations.
  • 15 October 2013 – Minister of Education, Hon Hekia Parata and Associate Minister of Education, Hon Dr Pita Sharples announce an independent specialist audit of Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust’s financial controls over public funding.
  • 15 October 2013 – Trust Board advised that they are commissioning their own independent audit of financial activity within Te Pataka Ohanga.
  • 16 October 2013 – Ernst and Young engaged to carry out the independent review.
  • 16 October 2013 – Terms of reference for review of financial controls finalised and the review begins.
  • 13 December 2013 – Draft Ernst and Young report provided to Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust to verify the facts in the report.
  • 28 January 2014 – Ernst and Young provides the Ministry of Education with a draft version of the review report.
  • 4 February 2014 – Ministry of Education meets with Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust to discuss the Ernst and Young review.
  • 18 February 2014 – Ernst and Young, Ministry of Education and Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust meet to further discuss the review.
  • 27 February 2014 – Ministry of Education provides briefing to update the Minister of Education on the review – draft report was not provided.
  • 12 March 2014 – Ernst and Young report is finalised and provided to the Ministry of Education. A copy is provided to the Minister of Education’s office.
  • 18 March 2014 – Ministry of Education provides a further briefing to the Minister of Education (with a hard copy of the final Ernst and Young review report attached).
  • 18 March 2014 - Minister of Education, Hon Hekia Parata and Associate Minister of Education, Hon Dr Pita Sharples meet with representatives of Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust Board to discuss findings of Ernst and Young review. Ernst and Young report and Ministry advice released publicly.
  • 18 March 2014 – Information is brought to the attention of Ministers regarding allegations that are serious and specific.
  • 19 March 2014 – After receiving advice from the Ministry of Education and Crown Law, Ministers refer allegations to the Serious Fraud Office and Charities Services.

Information release

The Ministry of Education has released information relating to the Ernst and Young review of Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust, and allegations of misspending.

There is a high level of public interest in this subject-matter as shown by the number of Official Information Act requests received by Ministers and the Ministry of Education. Consequently we are publishing a comprehensive set of documents regarding the review, dating from October 2013 – December 2014.

The documents in this release include advice and correspondence regarding the review, and correspondence between the Ministers and the Trust Board.

  • Letter correspondence between Ministers and the Trust [PDF; 7.85mb]

These documents show:

  • The actions that Ministers took both before and after the release of the review;
  • Ministers were aware that the Ernst and Young review was only one of the reviews being conducted into the Trust, and that the review of Te Pataka Ohanga (TPO) by Charities Services would form an important part of the picture on the state of governance and financial management issues within TPO and the Trust;
  • Ministers were always clear that the Trust needed to exercise proper governance of TPO, take full responsibility for the actions of its subsidiary, and urgently reform its own governance, representative and financial accountability practices to provide transparency for kōhanga reo and other tax payers.

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