Tertiary Commission in a shambles

The further delay of a funding framework for universities and hundreds of other tertiary institutions after the Government spent nearly $1m on staffing and consultants to design the framework, shows the complete incompetence of the Tertiary Education Commission and its architect Steve Maharey.

"This was a flagship framework which has taken years, four major reports and employed 256 staff to get it in place.

"Now we hear that this famous framework that was meant to be the answer to all the problems in tertiary education cost another $225,000 (+GST), on consultants, and yet it is still being delayed.

Questions from Mr Power to the Minister reveal that the Tertiary Education Commission this year bought in consultants, Burleigh Evatt, to redo the work which the Commission had spent $760,000 designing in 2002.

"That 1000 universities, colleges of education, polytechnics and private institutions won't have the new funding framework for another two years, despite all the work that's gone into this is just beyond me," Mr Power said.

"There is something seriously wrong when the large numbers of staff at the commission couldn't get the job done, and high-paid consultants had to be bought in to do the work.

"For a Government that was going to clamp down on a supposed 'culture of extravagance' this kind of spending the result is ridiculous. The Minister must explain exactly why this much promoted framework is costing so much and taking so long to get in place," Mr Power said.

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