A week back, a government agency, namely the Commerce Commission, prosecuted Kiwibank, a government owned entity, in another government agency’s premises, namely the Auckland District Court.
The upshot, doubtless involving costly lawyers, was Kiwibank being fined $1.5 million.
The prosecution related to Kiwibank’s computer cock-ups resulting in some customers being overcharged.
This was a classic case of spending other people’s money in which common sense went out the window. What possible purpose was served by the government prosecuting one of its own entities, paying the fine and then via another of its agencies, receiving it at an all-up probable cost in staff wages through the process, wasting perhaps at least $1m?
Were all of the dozens of people involved bloody stupid? Probably, yes.
What should have happened? Having discovered overpayments, the Commerce Commission should have advised Kiwibank which could then have made the refunds and corrected their computer systems.
All of this spell-binding stupidity points up why the government should stay out of commercial activities. Kiwibank should be floated as a public company pronto.
15 Comments
Exactly. The madness never stops!
If the “madness” stopped, where would we go for laughs?
Maybe they wanted to create a legal precedent.
Another good Bob a Job😎
All commercial ventures run by the government are the equivalent of a cargo cult imitating the private sector staffed with people who have little or no commercial experience.
Like the ferries
Sounds like NZ need a Trump to stop this government inefficiency.
Not unlike the Regional Council suing their “Local” compatriots for an unlawful discharge etc. Nothing deliberate nor lesson learning – just keeps lawyers well-fed and some bureaucrat in a job when they’re not otherwise ordering road cones.
Don’t forget that kiwibank reported themselves!
Along with a plan to rectify the problem and refund all overcharges.
Only makes the whole farce even worse.
Also remember the NS government don’t bank with Kiwibank. They bank with a westpac.
…because Kiwibank isn’t a real bank in the generally accepted meaning of the term.
We need Trumps DOGE
There’s always a question of why government should be in commercial business, and the key objective of Kiwibank was to be a competitor to the larger predominantly overseas owned ones; rather than seeing $7 billion profit being exported annually (which is long term unsustainable).
It is however plane to see successive politicians have not been serious about this, otherwise they wouldnt have accepted bank executive or board roles on overseas banks, kept government accounts with Westpac or starved Kiwibank of capital inhibiting its growth.
Politicians interest is only self interest, and have sold the average kiwi down the drain over the last 40 years. Its a reflection of how bankrupt democracy has become, and the short term greed individualism and multinational corporates are currently exercising.
Yet, most multinational companies are as inefficient as government, and return very little to the shareholder anyway; even though they have controlling positions.
How quickly we seem to have forgotten that the commercial banks very nearly bankrupted us all via the GFC. Yes, governments do silly things, but so does the private sector. Having worked in both I’m not convinced either have a monopoly on stupidity or prudence.
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