Operators call on auditor-general to investigate tourism fund

Wednesday, 14 October 2020

Wairaurahiri Jet co-managers Johan Groters and Joyce Kolk are among the group of tourism operators who’ve enlisted a lawyer in their search for answers about the tourism recovery package. (File photo)

The Auditor-General has not yet decided whether it will investigate how Government’s tourism recovery fund was “divvied” out.

A group of 48 tourism operators, including several from Fiordland, have asked the New Zealand Controller and Auditor-General John Ryan to investigate the allocation process for Government’s strategic asset protection programme (STAPP), which they say created an uneven playing field.

“It seemed to be a bit of an unorganised lolly scramble,” Wings and Water chief executive Kylie Krippner said.

A spokesperson for Ryan’s office said they were still considering the request.

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Krippner is frustrated by a long wait to access information from the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) about how funding decisions were made.

“Imagine if we all ran our business like that, with no transparency,” she said.

Wairaurahiri Jet co-owner Joyce Kolk says the jet boat draws tourists to Tuatapere.

Stuff reported last week that the group’s lawyer Andy Glenie had asked MBIE for documents relating to how allocation decisions were made, but was told the query would be treated as Official Information Act (OIA) requests because of the amount of material involved.

Briefings and minutes from meetings about the fund have been released on MBIE’s website, but the group will need to wait longer to see feedback from Government agencies about the applications.

A spokesperson for Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis said processing the request as an OIA would ensure all relevant information was provided in the correct format.

“[This] is the standard approach when a request requires a search through a large quantity of documents and information, and involves consultation with other agencies,” the spokesperson said.

The group had previously called on MBIE to review its decision-making process, but the ministry has repeatedly said it will not do so.

“The Tourism Recovery Ministers Group has confirmed that all funding available under the STAPP process has been allocated. No new applications can be made or reconsiderations of original decisions undertaken,” a spokesperson said Monday.

STAPP was announced as a tourism recovery initiative in early-June, made up as a mixture of loans and grants (up to $500,000).

Businesses were given 14 days to apply.

Local operators argue that the criteria on the application forms wasn’t clear enough and many thought they were ineligible, only to find their competitors had received funds.

Applicants were asked whether they’d exhausted all other funding options.

“What does exhausted all financial means mean?,” Krippener asked.

She wasn’t sure if she was expected to take out loans or a mortgage before saying she had.

This was one of the specifications that stopped Wairaurahiri Jet owner-operator Joyce Kolk from applying.

But after seeing funding go to similar businesses in the south, she felt “dumb” for not applying, she said.

“We’re looking to mortgage our house. Those other people don’t have to do that, and they got the funding. It doesn’t seem right.”

Another sticking point was the specification that applicants should be iconic to New Zealand.

“I looked at that and I thought nah, that’s not us. But we’re iconic to the region. We bring people to western Southland/southern Fiordland,” Kolk said.

Other jet-boat operators had received funding and moth-balled their business, she said.