Foreword

The Ministry of Education has, since 1994, contracted with the Māori Education Trust for the administration of certain publicly funded scholarship schemes. As part of the tertiary education reforms, a process began in July 2003 to transfer responsibility for the contract administration from the Ministry of Education to the Tertiary Education Commission.

The Tertiary Education Commission raised concerns about the financial management of the scholarships by the Māori Education Trust, and the quality of the monitoring by the Ministry of Education. The Secretary for Education asked the Auditor-General to consider investigating the concerns, and he decided to conduct an inquiry into the management and monitoring arrangements for the scholarship programmes.

The Auditor-General is currently overseas, and I am presenting this report on his behalf. We thank the staff of the Ministry of Education, the Tertiary Education Commission and the Māori Education Trust for their co-operation and assistance.

K Simpkins
Deputy Controller and Auditor-General

13 October 2004