06 May 2024
Ref: DOIA 2324-2194
J Bythell
Email: [FYI request #26333 email]
Tēnā koe J Bythell
Thank you for your email of 5 April 2024 to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE)
requesting, under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA), the following information:
Is your department at risk of overspending its financial appropriation this year? If it is, please supply
•
all correspondence with and information supplied to Treasury about this
•
all correspondence with and information supplied to your Minister and your Minister’s office
about this
•
all correspondence with and information supplied to the Public Services Commission about this
•
all correspondence with and information supplied to the Auditor-General or his office about
this
•
all papers to or considered by your leadership team about this
•
all papers to or considered by your risk and audit committee about this all papers to or
considered by any other of your governance groups about this
Have you set aside an allowance in this financial year for redundancies or other costs of
restructuring?
•
If so, how much is that allowance?
•
If not, do you anticipate any costs for these in this financial year?
We do not consider there is a risk of overspending against appropriation this year. We are continuing to
monitor our appropriation spend against budget to reduce the risk of overspend as the environment
changes.
Regarding the second part of your request, as part of the ongoing focus to actively manage the size of our
workforce in a constrained fiscal environment, since December we have paid 138 individuals redundancy
payments resulting in a total cost of approximately $6.3m. These payments include a mix of outcomes
related to our initial voluntary redundancy process, as well as stop work notices and formal change
processes. We are not able to provide an expected cost of redundancy for formal change processes which
are currently underway as they are the subject of a consultation process. Our focus is on supporting our
people through these change processes. As the change processes conclude and when we are able to
provide confirmed numbers, we will work to share this with you once it has been communicated with our
people.
If you wish to discuss any aspect of your request or this response, or if you require any further assistance,
please contact
[email address].
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman if you are unhappy with this
decision. Information about how to make a complaint is available at www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or
freephone 0800 802 602.
Nāku noa, nā
Paul Helm
Chief Financial Officer
Corporate Services, Finance and Enablement
