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Speaker 1: The Order to General has fed up with government departments

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Speaker 1: spending money without reporting on what they're spending achieves. So

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Speaker 1: what they the Order to General wants to do is

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Speaker 1: change the law to track what comes of government policies

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Speaker 1: and programs. So what's the story here. Janay tips Rainy

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Speaker 1: is The Herald's Wellington Business editor and joins you, now,

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Speaker 1: hello today today, Andrew, what does the Order to General want?

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Speaker 2: Well? I had a chat to the Order to General

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Speaker 2: the other day and he is really worried about the

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Speaker 2: fact at budget time governments allocate money to various initiatives.

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Speaker 2: You know, that catches the headlines, it's all over the news,

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Speaker 2: But then in the future we often don't know what

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Speaker 2: comes of that money. We don't actually know what has

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Speaker 2: been achieved. Now, an example he pointed to was the

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Speaker 2: Provincial Growth Fund. Our listeners might remember this one. It's

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Speaker 2: a New Zealand first initiative launched under the Labor led

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Speaker 2: government in twenty eighteen. That was three billion dollars allocated

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Speaker 2: to various projects in the regions, you know, aimed at

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Speaker 2: economic development, so on and so on. But do we

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Speaker 2: really know what's come of that three billion? We know

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Speaker 2: which projects have been funded, but there has been no

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Speaker 2: sort of checking up on what's been achieved and figuring

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Speaker 2: out what it's actually done. So John Ryan, the Order General,

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Speaker 2: his seven year term is coming to an end at

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Speaker 2: the middle of this year, and it seems like he's

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Speaker 2: really sort of upping the ante, kind of raising his

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Speaker 2: concerns quite publicly to the media about the quality and

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Speaker 2: the level of reporting and accountability.

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Speaker 1: And that is good because, of course the new government

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Speaker 1: came in and said, we're going to look at all

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Speaker 1: this sort of stuff and we're going to go through

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Speaker 1: it line by line and we're going to forensically account

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Speaker 1: for everything. They haven't been doing it. And this is

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Speaker 1: what the Auditor General is actually finally requiring from government departments.

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Speaker 1: Good on you. Does it require a law change?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so this is just his idea. I think what

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Speaker 2: the government is wanting to do is cut spending. He's

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Speaker 2: saying we need to know what the spending actually does.

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Speaker 2: He reckons a way to do this would be to

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Speaker 2: change the Public Finance Act. That's the law that sort

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Speaker 2: of oversees how the stuff is it. I asked Nichola

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Speaker 2: Willis what she thinks, and she said she was open

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Speaker 2: to changes. Now this issue might be investigated by the

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Speaker 2: Finance and Expenditure Committee. That's a parliamentary committee made up

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Speaker 2: of MPs. Nichola Willis said, you know, if that happens,

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Speaker 2: she'll take advice from the committee. Otherwise it's something that

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Speaker 2: she might have a look into herself. Yeah. Now, look,

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Speaker 2: John Ryan says, it's important that the public's engaged in

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Speaker 2: this because you know, for the sake of trust and

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Speaker 2: confidence in the public sector, the stuff is important.

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Speaker 1: Do you reckon that? Brian Roach and John Ryan mates,

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Speaker 1: and they've been talking over the barbecue.

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Speaker 2: Well, it certainly looks like it so right. Yeah. Brian

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Speaker 2: Roach is the Public Service Commissioner, and readers of The

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Speaker 2: Herald might remember that last week we did a story.

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Speaker 2: He came out and talked to us as well about

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Speaker 2: the need for the public sector to be modernized and

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Speaker 2: better reporting and so on. So they are singing off

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Speaker 2: the same song.

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Speaker 1: Sheet that's great today. I thank you so much for

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Speaker 1: your time today, and of course that story reported on

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Speaker 1: the Herald. More of the left wing drops that we

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Speaker 1: actually commit every day, because you know, we like that.

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Speaker 2: For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to

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Speaker 2: News Talks.

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Speaker 1: It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast

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Speaker 1: on iHeartRadio