ACC cans useless scheme publicly, but extended the contract within the last month

Yesterday it looked like the Taxpayers' Union struck up it's first win, with ACC announcing that it would scrap the health and safety training scheme which has cost levy holders $19million to date, with 84 cents per dollar being wasted (even with optimistic assumptions).

ONE News, 3 News, the Herald, Stuff, Radio NZ, and Newstalk ZB all reported that ACC had decided to scrap the programme late last year.

The Minister for ACC agreed with the Taxpayers' Union, calling the scheme "a rort" and a "cosy deal".

This morning we read the small print...

The contracts released to the Taxpayers' Union on 5 December note that the ending date is 31 December 2013.

We now know that ACC has just extended the contracts to 31 December 2014

Despite the ACC telling media yesterday that it decided 'late last year' to can the programme, we learned this morning that the contracts were renewed in December. The end date is now 31 December 2014.

It appears that ACC only changed its tune since the Taxpayers' Union publicly exposed the rort.

Remember, it’s not the Taxpayers’ Union who labelled the training scheme a waste of money, it’s ACC’s own experts. Telling the public that they will scrap the scheme but waiting for the new contracts to expire is not good enough. They conveniently failed to mention that the contracts have just been renewed...

The Taxpayers’ Union is also backing the Minister for ACC’s reported comments that Business NZ and the CTU should pay the wasted money back to ACC. With such clear evidence that the money did little if anything to improve workplace safety, we think Business NZ and the CTU are morally obliged to stop wasting this money and compensate ACC levy payers.

UPDATE: We've been told that the rolled over contract is 'transitional' and reduces the amounts paid to the CTU and Business NZ.  We are trying to confirm this with ACC and have requested the documentation.