Inquiry into Oranga Tamariki - Ministry for Children’s procurement and contract management practices
The Auditor-General has decided to carry out an inquiry into the procurement and contract management practices of Oranga Tamariki – Ministry for Children (Oranga Tamariki). These terms of reference set out the background and scope for the inquiry.
Background
Oranga Tamariki administers and oversees a significant amount of public spending on contracting services to support tamariki, rangatahi, and their whānau.
Concerns have been raised with our Office about the processes Oranga Tamariki has followed to manage its contracts with social service providers, particularly its decision-making process for the 2024/25 contracting round.
It is important that public organisations have robust procurement and contract management processes to ensure that they are buying goods or services at a reasonable price and receiving value for money.
Public organisations should use evidence and analysis to inform their decisions about how to spend public money. They should manage their relationships with suppliers effectively and have robust mechanisms in place to monitor supplier performance. Without robust processes, services may be delivered poorly, relationships with suppliers can be damaged, and public trust and confidence in a public organisation can be undermined.
The services being delivered under the contracts in question support some of New Zealand’s most vulnerable tamariki and rangatahi, and their whānau. It is vital that these contracts are managed well from beginning to end.
Because of the importance of these services, the concerns we have heard, and the amount of funding involved, we have decided to carry out an inquiry.
The inquiry
The inquiry will be carried out under section 18(1) of the Public Audit Act 2001. We will examine the process by which Oranga Tamariki decided to renew, vary, or allow to expire contracts with social service providers for 2024/25, including:
- the processes, frameworks, and practices Oranga Tamariki had in place to support its decision-making;
- the criteria and evidence Oranga Tamariki relied on to make its decisions, including the monitoring and reporting requirements for existing contracts;
- what Oranga Tamariki communicated to providers, in particular those whose contracts would be varied or allowed to expire;
- what planning was done to ensure a smooth transition to new contracts and to exit from others; and
- any other related matter that the Auditor-General considers it desirable to report on.
The focus of our inquiry will be on the processes, decisions, and actions taken by Oranga Tamariki between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2024. However, we will also consider subsequent events to the extent they are relevant. We may choose to use sampling methodology in our work.
We will not examine or comment on policy decisions underpinning contracting decisions or strategy, or the merits of individual decisions about whether to continue to contract a particular provider.
We will not make any public comment while our work is under way. We will publish a report once we have completed the inquiry and the report has been tabled in Parliament.