OIAD-3946
02 May 2024
J Bythell
[FYI request #26332 email]
Tēnā koe J Bythell
Thank you for your request to the Department of Conservation, received on 05 April 2024, in
which you asked:
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 have considered your request under the Of icial Information Act 1982.
Your questions and our responses are listed below:
1.
Is your department at risk of overspending its financial appropriation this year?
The Department (DOC) is forecasting and tracking to spend within (and not over) its
appropriations this financial year.
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2.
Have you set aside an allowance in this financial year for redundancies or other costs
of restructuring?
Like all government agencies, DOC has been directed to find savings from our
budget. On top of this, we also need to fund cost pressures for the next financial year.
The proposed changes are a response to the Government’s budget reduction target
of 6.5% for DOC and to meet cost pressures.
We are currently consulting internally on change proposals that wil provide savings
and enable us to meet cost pressures. The outcome of the consultation process wil
determine the number of positions that are disestablished.
Once final decisions are made on the proposed organisational changes, a
Management of Change process wil begin with affected staff. The organisational
change proposals include new roles, and we have vacancies that have been on hold.
As the Management of Change process includes matching affected staff with new or
vacant roles, the number of staff that may become redundant wil not be known until
the Management of Change processes have been completed – redundancy is always
a last resort.
Funding options to meet redundancy costs in the current financial year have been
developed and are able to be managed within existing budgets.
An estimated $700k of implementation costs is forecast to be spent in this financial
year for human resources and other support functions.
Please note that this letter (with your personal details removed) may be published on the
Department’s website.
Nāku noa, nā
Kevin Martin
Chief Financial Of icer
Department of Conservation
Te Papa Atawhai
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