Maladministration
20190904
Some useful reading for candidates standing for election on the 12th of October 2019.
Candidates could be asked how they think they'd perform when presented with some of the following.
Maladministration is the actions of a government body which can be seen as causing an injustice.
The definition of maladministration is wide and can include:
- Delay
- Incorrect action or failure to take any action
- Failure to follow procedures or the law
- Failure to provide information
- Inadequate record-keeping
- Failure to investigate
- Failure to reply
- Misleading or inaccurate statements
- Inadequate liaison
- Inadequate consultation
- Broken promises
" Very few candidates have had any experience with the actual business of council for the 3 years prior to standing for election.
Some have little to no idea how local councils operate or the boundaries between the elected arm and the administrative arms."
" If we were able to force more transparency and fair process a lot of the issues we eventually become aware of and then have very little chance of having our concerns addressed or even voicing them, would be questioned earlier and Councillors would not feel so comfortable with progressing with that which they know people would not be happy about if they knew."
The following list provides some examples of the techniques by which democratic processes can and are being manipulated :
Abuse of “Public Excluded”
Abuse of ‘privacy’ in non-disclosure of information requested under Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act.
Abuse of ‘charging policy’ as excuse for not providing information requested under LGOIMA
Workshops.
Administration staff with the help of key elected representatives can manipulate information and present it in any way that suits the agreed agenda with little to no public oversight.
Late publication of Agenda Items – and constant default appears to be supplementary papers circulated in the meeting (with limited copies available for public watchdogs in the gallery) that offer some option or corrections to the published agenda papers
Last Agenda items.
the use of these and the barely legal way they are put forward undermines the whole democratic process not only for the people but for Councillors who are put on the spot to make decisions usually under intense pressure from key elected representatives and administration.
Extra Ordinary Meetings.
These, as with the Late Agenda items are used all to often to get through some pet project or controversial changes that may have significant effect on the residents.
The arbitrary and inconsistent interpretation of the Resource Management Act by different councils is a major concern.
The power held by the Chief Executive Officer and administration with little to no ability to hold them to account for advice given.
Chief Executive Officer being legally entitled to withhold legal advice from elected Councillors.
Codes of Conduct are often used to undermine transparency and democratic process by silencing any dissent that the Chair and Chief Executive Officer have agreed upon and are useless in actually dealing with real issues with the conduct of Councillors.
Councils' meetings and workshops must be videoed and made available to the public.
Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987
Local Government Rating Act 2002
20190904
Latest OIA, and first set of LGOIMA data, released by the Ombudsman
2010
Chief Ombudsman , Beverley Wakeham's speech to Residents NZ Conference
A consequence of your Council refusing to comply with some of these Acts is that retrospective legislation may be passed to validate their maladministration.
e.g. Kaipara District Council (Validation of Rates and Other Matters ) Act 2013
September 2019