Serious questions for Wananga

This morning's lead story in the NZ Herald will no doubt leave a bad taste in taxpayers' mouths, with reports that the Whakatane-based Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi has received $6 million in payments it wasn't entitled to.

The Warriors are caught up in an investigation into a Maori tourism qualification involving alleged overpayments of $6 million of taxpayers' money.

Nearly 100 players and staff "completed" an 18-week course in just one day and a member of the club board - who also worked for the wananga that ran the tertiary course - has been referred to the Serious Fraud Office.

So 100 staff and players left left to do an 18 week course, came back with a certificate and no one asked questions?

Donna Grant has resigned from the Whakatane-based Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi and offered to assist with any potential SFO inquiry, according to her lawyer.

"She is absolutely confident she has done nothing wrong and is happy to co-operate," said Richard McIlraith of law firm Russell McVeagh.

A prominent figure in kapa haka and Maori performing arts, Mrs Grant is the daughter of Sir Howard Morrison and Sir Owen Glenn's sole representative on the five-person Warriors board. She was also the driving force behind the Warriors Foundation, the club's now defunct charity arm, which delivered the Hei Manaaki course to 94 players and staff from the league team.

Her husband, Anaru Grant, is the chairman of Te Arawa Kapa Charitable Trust which also delivered the course twice in Rotorua.

Forensic accounting firm Deloitte referred those three courses to the SFO, while the wananga cancelled the certificates of 217 students and refunded an additional $1.3 million in taxpayers' money. The Herald revealed last month that players and staff from the Warriors received certificates last year, which are among those now recalled.

Chief executive Wayne Scurrah said it was "disappointing to be caught up in all of this" but the club did not know the course was supposed to be 18 weeks long, not one day.

He declined to comment further because a board member was involved and referred questions to chairman Bill Wavish, who did not return messages.

This seems very strange. When you're looking to book a cause, the length is usually the key piece of information. Was it the Warrior's board member who arranged the training?

Mrs Grant's resignation and the referral to the SFO come in the wake of a review released yesterday that found the Hei Manaaki programme was "overfunded", according to the Tertiary Education Commission and the NZ Qualifications Authority.

An independent report by Deloitte, which formed part of the inquiry, found the monitoring of Hei Manaaki - levels 3 and 4 of the National Certificate in Maori Tourism - was poor and highlighted some "internal inadequacies in the academic oversight processes".

Students spent an average of 183 hours with tutors but the wananga was given taxpayer funding for 388 hours. Poor monitoring of attendance "may have resulted in the award of these national qualifications to students who have engaged in only a small proportion of the course", said the report.

This has the potential to seriously undermine the viability of the Wananga. It shows a severe failing of governance.

The "substantially compressed delivery" led to students participating in a programme that fell "well short" of its approved credit value.

Graham Smith, chief executive of Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi, said 217 certificates were cancelled.

One employee was dismissed for misconduct and disciplinary action for other staff has not been ruled out.