The Green Party is calling for an independent audit of the New Zealand Debt Management Office (NZDMO), which issued debt on behalf of the government worth NZ$19.5 billion in the year to June, because its staff are "regularly" treated to lunch, dinner, sports and theatre tickets by major banks.
Green Party co-leader Russel Norman said Treasury’s gift and hospitality register, released today, shows Treasury staff received a total of 234 "treats" in the past year valued at NZ$50 or more. The NZDMO is a unit of Treasury and its staff were the recipients of 164 of the gifts.
“The disturbing frequency and value of gifts regularly given to senior staff within the Debt Management Office -164 gifts in total - is something that should be closely looked at,” said Norman.
“In one year alone, Westpac, ANZ, BNZ, Barclays, and Deutsche Bank made 118 gifts to Debt Management Office staff. These included lunches, dinners, and theatre and sports tickets," he added.
“Such a culture of treating is outside of state sector rules and raises questions of a potential conflict of interest. An independent audit is needed to put this matter to rest.”
Norman noted that the NZDMO, which is responsible for managing the government's debt, is tasked with getting the best possible deal on government borrowing. This is typically done through auctions with banks bidding both on behalf of clients and themselves.
"A small change in the terms and conditions of these multi-million dollar loans can have a substantial influence on the final cost of borrowing to the taxpayer," Norman said.
“The banks and law firms are not giving these gifts because they are altruistic. They want something in return."
He suggested that the average New Zealander would look at the gift giving and expect some answers.
"An audit of the Debt Management Office’s behaviour is the best way to clear this up.”
The NZDMO, headed up by Treasurer Phil Combes, issued NZ$19.5 billion worth of government bonds in the year to June 30 and expects to issue up to NZ$13.5 billion in the 2011/12 year.
10 Comments
I'm a bit upset this item by Don Brash was deleted as I was looking forward to further discussion.
Company records do back up Don's statement that New Zealand Central Securities Depository is owned by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand and that they do own a large parcel of Fletcher Building Limited shares.
Weather the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority is stacked with Fletcher employees that have awarded contracts to Fletchers I couldn't tell you.
But if New Zealand Central Securities Depository own shares in Fletcher Building Limited (and they do), and work towards rebuilding goes to Fletchers, then the reserve bank will certainly benefit.
Personally I didn't get why Don thought this was such a bad thing.
Actually Don, looking through all the 10 Fletcher Building Limited investors it reads like veritable who's who of the banking world.
It looks like allot of the profit Fletchers make will be following New Zealand's immigration trend and going of shore.
Of the topic - what are your thoughts on American Marines having a base in NZ?
@David Chaston -RE: Fletcher's major shareholders
Page 77 of the document you reference does not reflect the true ownership of the company -the majority of the institutions listed are just what they say - nominee companies.
The little discussed nature of this means of share registration/ beneficial ownership can be abused by parties securing a geographically diverse but small collection of holdings in trust A/C's etc amounting to a significant but undisclosed collective stake reflecting effective control by certain interested persons or institutions.
The annual report shows Fletcher has just four substantial security holders. These are shareholders with at least 5% of the company's shares. These are listed as: Perennial Value Management, the Capital Group Companies Inc, IOOF Holdings, and Perpetual Trustees Australia.
The geographical split shows 37% of Fletcher's shares held in NZ, 35% in Australia (the company's biggest revenue source), 16% in North America, 7% in Europe and 5% in Asia.
Isn't there a better conspiracy theory going around?
Here is the list of share holders for Fletchers Building Limited direct from the NZ Companies Office where it lists just 10 share holders.
I’m only saying if because Fletchers have so many Fletchers companies under their umbrella but if Fletcher Building Limited is the head of all of their companies then you can see that apart from NZ Central Securities Depository Ltd the remanding investors are all Australian entities.
Also as NZ Central Securities Depository Ltd is a depository you can say that all of Fletchers shares as listed in the companies office are owned by investors outside of New Zealand.
296215920 shares New Zealand Central Securities Depository Limited NZ
43521538 shares JP MORGAN NOMINEES AUSTRALIA LTD Aus
38404045 shares NATIONAL NOMINEES LIMITED Aus
38263529 shares RBC DEXIA INVESTOR SERVICES AUSTRALIA Aus
20757955 shares HSBC CUSTODY NOMINEES AUSTRALIA LIMITED Aus
11165996 shares COGENT NOMINEES PTY LTD Aus
10882102 shares CITICORP NOMINEES PTY LIMITED Aus
5391125 shares UBS Nominees Pty Ltd Aus
4866790 shares CITICORP NOMINEES PTY LIMITED Aus
4839937 shares RBC DEXIA INVESTOR SERVICES AUSTRALIA Aus
I’m not sure how Fletchers conclude in their annual report that 37% of shares are held in New Zealand based on their company office reporting Gareth, but certainly it would seem apparent to a layman that the management company of this group of businesses is owned by entities outside of NZ.
That's right, and on these boards is only a micro view of how people think , so you can see how hard it might be to try educate people anyway.
So from the above holdings that would verify the posts I made last week in some way. !
Great posts keep it up , maybe someday here will be enough folk aware who actually will force change to happen.
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