CROWN FORESTRY RENTAL TRUST damning report on money being spent for themselves

Wellington, Nov 27

A damning report on the Crown Forestry Rental Trust says not only is it wasting millions of dollars, but it is spending that money on work it is not entitled to do. The long awaited report by the Maori affairs select committee says the trust’s performance is "wholly unsatisfactory", and overpaid trustees could be liable for breaching their obligations.

The trust, established in 1990, holds $350 million in rent from cutting rights for more than 400,000ha of former state forests which are subject to treaty claims and are being held in trust until their ownership is confirmed.

In the interim, the money is meant to be used to help Maori prepare and negotiate treaty claims but it seems under Latimer some of it went to his own pocket.

The committee said it had "major concerns with the trust".

It was confused about its purpose, claimants were funded on an "inadequate and inconsistent" basis and there were "high levels of expenditure".

The committee targeted around $1.3 million spent on trustees fees in 13 years.

Of this $709,947 had been handed out since 2000.

In 2002/2003, $152,400 was paid to chairman Sir Graham Latimer that equated to 304 working days at the normal rate of $500 a day. Remember he was questioned once on the money he spent on race horses?

"On balance we consider this fee was grossly excessive given the size and cost of the trust bureaucracy, the top heavy management structure and the trust’s claims that it has insufficient funds to assist claimants," the committee said.

Sir Graham had in effect became an executive director who saw his job as working alongside individual claimants. This was an "unnecessary and inappropriate" role and payment of the fee could not be justified. Earlier this year Finance Minister Michael Cullen stepped in and capped fees payable to trustees after the high payouts were discovered.

Spending $24,305 for Sir Graham to travel to an unrelated Privy Council hearing in May 2001 was neither "tenable nor credible".

"It is clear to us that trustees have acted beyond the scope of the trust, particularly in respect of some of the expenditure by the chairman. It is essential that the trustees exercise their legal responsibility to ensure all their actions are within the scope of the trust. Failure to do so potentially raises issues of personal responsibility for breaches of their trust obligations," the report said.

The report notes but does not explain one trustee paying back $45,200 in fees in 2002/2003 and another returning $3000.

The committee said millions were being wasted on "unnecessarily large and expensive bureaucracy based in Wellington". There were 53 staff with administration expenses, research services and other services accounting for $10 million in 2002/2003, almost half of the income for the year. The growing bureaucracy seemed intent on doing mainly research work for claimants that did not lead to anything. In 13 years, approximately 600 reports had been prepared by the trust, but only three cases had resulted in assets being transferred to claimants. The trust had blamed the Government, the office of treaty settlements and the Waitangi Tribunal for delays in processing claims that it was meant to assist.

This had led to the trust looking for other work to do, such as research. The committee said the trust had to take some responsibility. "For some perceived policy constraint, the trust has shifted from its primary role. We see no justification for the trust having been distracted in this way." The trust also had poor relations with claimants and Crown agencies. "This has led to mounting frustration on the part of some claimants, and in some cases open hostility to the trust."

Claimants had a right to be upset in some cases, the committee said and especially now with Eddie Durie having his conflicts of interest.

"We have serious concerns about criteria used by the trust to determine allocation of funding to claimant groups and feel that some groups are being wrongly denied funding." The committee said the trust had to focus on its job and become more accountable to the people the trust was for. "We expect the trust to be able to demonstrate within the next 12 months that it has addressed what we consider to be serious shortcomings in its performance and operations."

(EDS. SEEKING REACTION FROM SIR GRAHAM LATIMER ETC)

NZPAPARiljm 27/11/03 18-44NZ

In a National Business Review report in July 1999 Eddie Durie had made contributions to the 1995 trust review, processed through you guessed it his wife Donna Hall . Questions were being raised about the working relationship of Judge Durie and Donna Hall as far back as 1992. Donna Hall, had a case to answer for professional misconduct in 2013. The decision relates to allegations of a conflict of interest over a Maori land deal in Taupo valued at $5 million, claiming that she represented the vendor, purchaser and lender in the deal with the sale of Tauhara north block at Taupo during 2006 and 2007. The case continues somewhere in the Court system as at June 2013? You would think that Eddie being in retirement would take every opportunity to go see the world rather than get involved in more money affairs that can develop into controversy. Like a lot of these intellects money rather then etiquite is more important but hope Eddie can get himself together over all this.

What Maori strived for in the past the likes of Apirana Ngata, Maui Pomare, James Carroll, Heteriki te kani te Ua and Peter Buck have given way to the likes of the Harawiras, Turia, Sharples & the rest of them with Eddie Durie perhaps close behind now. Not only were researchers asked to change the paperwork for tribes but also CFRT changed the favouring yet has got the MTA Muaupoko claim all wrong to fund them on paper and will not investigate them. In 2013 June the MTA is divided with the CEO being sacked then reinstated as they seek the mandate. But what is CFRT doing about this---well nothing really?

But it’s not just the tribes who’ve tried to doctor the evidence. The Waitangi Tribunal’s claim negotiator, the Crown Forest Rental Trust, has done the same. Ask researcher MIT Ph.D Dr John Robinson? so who are crooks. CFRT and who else?? "The Government is not legally bound to follow the recommendations of the Waitangi Tribunal, it's just Treaty bound. If it's going to stand by the undertakings it made at the time of the signing of the Treaty then, oh yes, it should certainly be listening to the Tribunal."

Table 1 BELOW shows the fees paid to individual trustees from 2000 to 2003, based on figures in the relevant
reports to appointors.
Table 1 Fees paid to trustees of the Crown Forestry Rental Trust 2000–2003
The notes accompanying the report to appointors states that the Minister of Finance initially set trustee fees at a daily rate of $500 for the chairperson and $400 for other trustees. In addition to governance issues, the notes also state that ‘trustees spend a substantial amount of time working alongside claimant groups to assist them with their affairs as well as working on projects and initiatives at district and national levels’. This includes representation on the Volcanic Interior Plateau Taumata – the body which provides oversight for the Volcanic Interior Plateau by two trustees (one Crown and one Māori Trustee). This regime was superseded in 2003, at the instigation of the Minister of Finance, by one where the chairman’s potential earnings are restricted to an annual payment of $25,000, and the directors’ fees
increased to $450 per day, but with a cap of $12,500.18
Report to appointors of the Crown Forestry Rental Trust 2002–03. Crown Forestry Rental Trust, p. 22.

Crown Forestry Rental Trust—trustee fees. Treasury report AL-3-2-6, 13 June 2003.

It is clear to us that the trustees have acted beyond the scope of the Trust, particularly in respect of
some of the expenditure by the chairman.--[ Parlt conclusion ]

No provision is made to compensate those claimants WHO MUST research on their own funding yet lawyers can bill the legal aid for fees in excess of what really they should retain & CFRT battle amongst themselves with rental money. To us its another rip off like a Maori Land court Judge who procrastinates on judgement and says they are "referees only". Its not the claimants at fault for their lack of understanding its the lawyers, Judges and Sirs on the pakeha bandwagon who are too blame. The more they say nothing the better, then attain a knighthood and then get on more trusts etc on the pay wagon. Some lawyers including heads of TPK, Maori Council, CFRT etc make plenty for themselves the longer things drag out but bet your life they give nothing back nor over their years of tenure ever helped Maori before this all came about.

Take for instance :Wai 2180 - Taihape: Rangitikei ki Rangipo.Memorandum of Counsel on behalf of the Mokai Patea claimants in Wai 1705, Wai 647, Wai 588, Wai 385, Wai 581 and Wai 1888. as filed by Leo Watson counsel and continued delays by CFRT without outlining the questions asked for properly:

READ THE PARLT REPORT ON CROWN FORESTRY RENTAL TRUST Forty-seventh Parliament (Mahara Okeroa, Chairperson) November 2003: [ OPEN CFRT INVESTIGATIVE REPORT ] READ MORE PARLT REPORTS ON CROWN FORESTRY RENTAL TRUST [ OPEN CFRT REPORTS ]