12 June 2024
OIAD-1090
Charles Finley
[FYI request #26807 email]
Tēnā koe Charles,
Thank you for your email of 15 May 2024 to the Ministry for the Environment (the
Ministry) requesting the following under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act):
Please provide information on whether you have used contractors,
consultants or other providers of services to fil gaps you have from accepting
voluntary redundancy in the last six months. I am interested in both short term
fil ing of gaps and long term fil ing of skil gaps and why redundancy would be
used and then services being bought in.
With this, please detail
- The business unit and job area being fil ed.
- The case / argument for using a supplier to fil a gap where redundancy was
accepted.
- The cost of this supplier providing this resource (or additional service).
- The approval endorsing this decision, given redundancy was given.
- If possible, the total cost of providing this service above the standard cost
(such as the cost of payout plus the increase in cost through using a
consultant).
For completeness, I am interested and think this is in the public interest as
voluntary redundancy would imply that services are no longer needed, but
then if money is being used to give work to consultants then I am interested in
understanding how this is best use of taxpayer funds. Please note I have
asked various agencies who have announced the use of voluntary
redundancies this question.
The majority of kaimahi who accepted an offer of voluntary redundancy from the
Ministry finished on Friday 24 May 2024. To have kaimahi expression of interest for
voluntary redundancy accepted, a genuine redundancy situation had to exist, and
therefore the Ministry has not engaged any contractors, consultants or other
providers of services to fil gaps from kaimahi accepting voluntary redundancy, nor
does it plan to.
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Office of the
Ombudsman of my decisions relating to this request, in accordance with section
28(3) of the Act. The relevant details can be found on their website at:
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz.
Please note that, due to the public interest in our work, the Ministry publishes
responses to requests for official information on our
OIA responses page shortly
after the response has been sent. If you have any queries about this, please feel free
to contact our Ministerial Services team:
[email address]. Nāku noa, nā,
Tracey Kaio
General Manager – People and Capability
Ministry for the Environment | Manatū Mō Te Taiao
