Hon BILL ENGLISH (National—Clutha-Southland) Link to this
I wish to make a personal explanation relating to comments I made in the House yesterday. In the course of asking a question regarding the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology, I made a statement that left the impression that a number of senior staff in the polytechnic had benefited personally from Government payments for the COOL IT programme. In fact, only one member of the senior staff of Christchurch Polytechnic was in a position to benefit personally, and I will just quote from the Auditor-General’s report on the matter. The Auditor-General stated: “CPIT allowed Ms Buck”—being Ms Vicki Buck—“to be put in a position which gave her the opportunity to use her CPIT-funded time, resources, and position to enhance the value of her private financial interests in BSL.” It is unfortunate that I did leave the impression that other staff members may have benefited, and I hope that this corrects the record.