Audit New Zealand’s financial review of Te Mängai Päho funding of the documentary Hawaiki has found that the way the money is being spent on the project is reasonable and appropriate.

Te Mängai Päho CEO Trevor Moeke was confident that Audit NZ would find that Te Mängai Päho procedures and project expenditure would stand up to scrutiny. “However we asked for the financial review so the public would have an independent expert’s assurance that we are spending taxpayers’ money wisely.”

Trevor Moeke says the auditor noted that
· Te Mängai Päho procedures were reliable,
· Astraeus’s reporting procedures were in order,
· expenditure of the money granted by the agency was appropriate,
· overheads were reasonable,
· the levels of progress reporting and production monitoring are sufficient.

“Audit NZ’s financial review indicated confidence in Te Mängai Päho processes and in the way money is being spent on the project. Audit NZ did raise minor issues and Te Mängai Päho is addressing these.”

Audit NZ refers to four missing invoices and 15 missing credit card receipts for the project. However, Audit NZ was satisfied that none of the receipts were significant or appeared unusual. Audit NZ pointed out that this issue did not detract from the “overall completeness of records or from the detailed way in which these were filed and recorded”.

Audit NZ mentioned funding that Astraeus NZ Ltd is holding “in suspense” as management fees or contingency funds. Trevor Moeke says Te Mängai Päho staff are managing this issue as part of the ongoing nature of the contract. The project is not yet complete and the funding for it has not yet all been allocated. However, any management fee or contingency costs will come out of the existing project budget.

Audit NZ’s financial review noted that in one instance reporting was not strictly adhered to. However this had been rectified and other improvements implemented.

Trevor Moeke reiterates the primary finding of the Audit NZ financial review, which is that the expenditure of money granted to Astraeus NZ Ltd was appropriate.

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