Simon Power MP
National Party Justice & Corrections Spokesman

22 October 2007

Corrections spends $8,000 on role-playing

The Corrections Department’s spending of $8,000 on role-playing for managers while it is dogged by serious staffing issues shows what a very strange contradiction it is, says National Party Justice & Corrections spokesman Simon Power.

He is releasing answers to questions, received under the Official Information Act, which shows that:

• 165 employees were investigated in 2006/07, an increase of 43% over 2005/06.
• 155 officers resigned in 2006/07, with nearly half of those at three prisons – 31 at Rimutaka, and 20 each at Auckland and Christchurch Men’s. Eight resigned while facing or having faced disciplinary action.
• 15 officers were sacked.
• 91 staff were in acting management positions at September 17.
• The department has spent $7,910 since 2004 to hire actors to ‘role-play scenarios’ as part of the selection process for senior and principal officers.

“The fact that so many staff were either under investigation, were sacked, resigned, or were in temporary management jobs is of concern.

“And remember they also lost nearly one-quarter of their head office staff in the past year.

“This indicates that something is wrong with the way Corrections is managed, how it chooses its staff, and how it treats them once they are there.

“We know from votes of no confidence in management that staff morale is not what it could be.

“And sharing $1.7 million in bonuses between some staff last year after the Minister put the whole department ‘on notice’ does not help.

“As for spending nearly $8,000 on actors to help management with their ‘role-play’ games – I just wonder if that’s a good use of taxpayers’ money.

“Perhaps Corrections Minister Damien O’Connor might like to elaborate on what games they played at taxpayer expense.

“Something isn’t quite right with a department that has this sort of staffing report card.”

Attached: Corrections letter - PDF Format

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