Newly elected Paraparaumu Ward Councillor K. Guru Gurunathan says the in-coming council must urgently review all formal relationship established with local iwi partner, Ati Awa ki Whakarongotai.
This follows the loss of confidence by Child, Youth and Family which has terminated funding of several social programs worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“This is the second Government funded agency to lose fiscal confidence in the organisations ‘mandated’ to represent this local iwi. Capital & Coast District Health Board had earlier discovered serious anomalies with the way funds intended for the delivery of a range of health services to local Maori were siphoned off to buy a farm in Northland, investments in banks and a failed caf,” says Cr Gurunathan.
He says Kāpiti Coast District Council must review its own formal relationship with this local iwi especially in those areas of funding and arrangements for iwi approvals for resource consent applications by developers.
“There are reasons to believe that a culture of corruption has set in and until that is fully exposed and the people responsible made accountable KCDC needs to be extremely careful it’s not legitimising that culture.
“Mayor Jenny Rowan, senior staff advisers and a number of councillors had adopted the stance that the issues are internal iwi matters and KCDC should not interfere. That position is no longer tenable or acceptable to the community.
“The process of nation building, especially at the local community level, needs transparency and accountability best achieved through open debate and discussion,” says Cr Gurunathan.
