The new mega polytechnic has not only apologised to staff for its handling of the transition, but also now the minister of education.
Te Pūkenga chairperson Murray Strong and acting chief executive Peter Winder appeared before Parliament's education select committee this morning (file image). Photo: supplied
Te Pūkenga has been beset with difficulties as it works to bring polytechnics, institutes of technology and Industry Training Organisations together by 1 January.
Te Pūkenga chief executive Stephen Town - earning up to $13,000 a week - remains on unexplained personal leave, there was a projected deficit blowout, and concerns about job losses.
The forecast $110 million deficit - $53.5m more than budgeted - was partly due to lower enrolments.
Chairperson Murray Strong recently extended an apology to all staff for not listening and not appreciating their expertise, and for a lack of progress in creating the new institute.
He and acting chief executive Peter Winder appeared before Parliament's education select committee this morning, where they were grilled about the problems with the transition, what it was doing to cut costs and to work more constructively with staff.
"We've apologised to the minister and to the staff of Te Pūkenga for not making the progress we'd expected, where we find ourselves in terms of the current position and we've also outlined the work that's now required to get us where we need to," Strong told MPs.
Despite the "difficult" circumstances he believed the model and vision were as important as ever and "critical" to New Zealand's future.
Strong confirmed Town's contract ends in July next year, but refused to go into details around his personal leave, which as chair he had signed off.
He told MPs acting chief executive Peter Winder would lead the transition period until the end of the year but who would be doing that, come January 2023, had yet to be determined.
Te Pūkenga was now on a cost cutting exercise to pull the deficit back closer to $50m; Strong said they were "having to make adjustments accordingly" when asked whether the $13,000 being paid to Town while he was on leave was coming out of cuts to the head office budget.
Afterwards, Strong would not comment further, except to say he expected to hear from Town in the next three to four weeks.
He said while Te Pūkenga was behind where it should be, he believed it could make the January deadline.
"We need to do everything we can to actually balance the books," Winder told reporters after the select committee hearing. He would "like to think" Minister of Education Chris Hipkins was "less anxious than he was" but admitted there was "still a way to go".
Another area under scrutiny was exactly what the new institute would look like, how it would be staffed and, accordingly, how many people faced losing their jobs.
The "quantum" of any job losses had not yet "been determined" but Strong said it had been clear since the start of the process there would be new jobs and "existing roles disestablished".
There would now be a rejigged consultation period with staff, beginning on the 15 August, but it wouldn't be on the organisational structure as originally proposed. The transition plan under that was "too risky", Strong told MPs, and so changes had been made.
The previous one "got right down to the level of each individual job" but this new consultation would be on the "broad structure", he said.
National Party tertiary education spokesperson Penny Simmonds was far from satisfied with the level of detail the leadership team offered up to the committee.
Penny Simmonds Photo: Phil Smith
"We asked them to be accountable for what was happening with the chief executive and they refused to answer it," she said.
"They have pulled back on the operating model... to just consulting on an operating model for the chief executives, what's going to happen with the chief executive, so all of the staff across all the polytechnics will be going into next year with no idea where they're going to be sitting within an operating model."
Students and staff could not be fully confident Te Pūkenga would be up and and running - and functional - by 1 January, Simmonds said.
"I think it's incredibly stressful for the staff, I've had numerous staff coming to me, absolutely wrought with anxiety over what's going to be happening to them and they still won't know on the 1st of January."