I’ve been saying for years that we needed an Independent Commission Against Corruption. Our trading partners have them, even Fiji has the FICAC.
Now Judith Collins has as good as announced that with an extension of the purview of the SFO and also a doubling of their budget.
National would double the Serious Fraud Office’s budget to investigate more cases of fraud, bribery and corruption – saying the watchdog is currently “meandering along with six cases a year”.
“The SFO takes very few prosecutions, not because there isn’t fraud, bribery and corruption in New Zealand, but because the office doesn’t have the resources to do its job properly,” National leader Judith Collins said in a speech this morning at her old employer, MinterEllisonRuddWatts, in Auckland.
“The office needs more investigators and more resources to work with its domestic and international counterparts.
“We will not stand by and allow an entity with the powers of the Serious Fraud Office to be continually, let’s say, allowed to meander along with six cases a year. We expect better. We don’t blame the Serious Fraud Office, we blame those who have chosen not to give them the budget that they deserve.”
National has pledged to double the SFO’s budget from $12.7 million a year, to $25m, and would rename it to the “Serious Fraud and Anti-corruption Agency“, which Collins said made clearer the focus wasn’t only on white-collar crimes involving private companies.
“The office’s mandate and focus goes well beyond the world of investment, accounting and banking. It also tackles fraud, bribery and corruption in local government, community entities and iwi trusts.”
This is good, everyone knows of dodgy tender processes and bidding irregularities, especially in local government. Another area I’d be looking at is Defense contracting and tenders.
It is well known in the commercial sector of people taking bungs [bribes] to get tenders through. It is a joke every year when some clipboard carrying Wombles in a cushy Wellington office declare New Zealand to be the “least corrupt country in the world”.
The reality is far from that. Let’s hope that National wins the election and this policy is implemented.
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