Coddington Deborah: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Coddington Deborah: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:616;Page:11779] 
4.  
DEBORAH CODDINGTON (ACT) 
 to the  
Associate Minister of Education (Tertiary Education) 
: What action did he take and on what dates did he take it following the letter of complaint he received asserting the chief executive of the Hikurangi Learning Centre was carrying out fraudulent acts by changing attendance sheets of students? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS (Associate Minister of Education (Adult and Community Education)) 
 on behalf of the 
Associate Minister of Education (Tertiary Education) 
: The complainant was sent a letter of acknowledgment on 2 February 2004. On 12 March 2004 the Northland regional office of the Tertiary Education Commission initiated the following actions. It compared the two sets of records referred to in the letter; identified a couple of trainees where there seemed to be a discrepancy; identified differences in information; and followed that up with Work and Income for trainees who have gone back into their system and compared dates. As we speak it is now meeting with the Hikurangi Learning Centre this afternoon about the complaint. 
Deborah Coddington 
: Why has he not referred this matter to the Auditor-General or the police given that the Tertiary Education Commission has already audited the Hikurangi Learning Centre every year and tells us that everything is OK? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: Neither I nor the commission have involved the police or the Audit Office. The commission is investigating. If there is a need to involve the police it will do so. But such complaints are quite frequent and I would like to draw members’ attention to the fact that there were ghosts on school rolls for many many years when I was in senior administration under previous Governments. 
Dr Ashraf Choudhary 
: What sort of tertiary education provision is the Hikurangi Learning Centre involved in and how large a provider is it? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: For 2003 and 2004 the Tertiary Education Commission has purchased Training Opportunities and Youth Training programmes from the Hikurangi Learning Centre. There are 18 places available in the former programme and nine places in the latter. The Hikurangi Learning Centre has received around but less than $400000 a year in funding. 
Simon Power 
: Did the Minister report her ghost enrolments at her school to the then Minister of Education? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: The allusion I was making was to the practice that occurred often in the comparison between 1 March roll returns and actual roll attendances on that day. I did not make them; I always got a very clean record when the Audit Office came in. 
Hon Brian Donnelly 
: Could the Associate Minister explain the apparent inconsistency between the statement made by the chief executive officer of the Eastern Institute of Technology referred to by the Associate Minister of Education (Tertiary Education) yesterday that his institution does not have recruiters signing up people at hamburger bars and the fact that Mr Mark is recorded as being enrolled at the Eastern Institute of Technology—given that two other MPs can verifying the accuracy of Mr Mark’s statement to the House? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: This question was originally about the Hikurangi Learning Centre. The Minister can however comment on the matter if she wishes to do so. 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: I understand that the Tertiary Education Commission is investigating the Eastern Institute of Technology in terms of such category 5.1 enrolments. 
Dr Muriel Newman 
: Does he believe that it is appropriate for tutors to be instructed to fill out attendance rolls in pencil but to sign them in ink so that they can falsely inflate attendance rolls; if he does not think it is appropriate can he just tell the House why he did not act in December last year when he was first informed of this case? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: There are two questions there. With reference to his being informed in December I understand that the letter was received in the Minister’s office on 24 December—that is Christmas Eve—and the Minister was not in the office on that particular day. In terms of writing in pencil I can only assume and this is a positive way of looking at it that it was the advised practice—all of those of us involved in teaching will remember it and I presume the member herself remembers it—in schools when filling out our form attendance registers to fill them out in pencil first. This practice may have been continued.