More than $1 billion of spending by Oranga Tamariki has been cleared by a review.
Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
RNZ revealed in June the agency's development and funding of sexual violence support services had been mired in what the government later called an "incredibly serious" failure.
Oranga Tamariki told Children's Minister Kelvin Davis in May 2022 it had "identified and accepted weaknesses in its financial management systems and processes".
It then called in its chief internal auditor.
The auditor checked sexual violence spending of $40 million, spending under a homelessness action plan of $17m, as well as the entire $1.1b the agency received in Budget 2019, when the sexual violence services allocation was made, an OIA response to RNZ on Wednesday showed.
The auditor concluded the money was spent "appropriately" in the 12 months up to June 2022.
It covered the period when the sexual violence project was shut down a year ago and its leftover funds transferred to another section of Oranga Tamariki.
This was after an external review exposed a void of knowledge and action surrounding multi-millions of dollars of service development that dozens of community providers rely on.
The agency assured the minister in May it had "started to fix some of the more obvious weaknesses" around financial controls.
The new OIA showed its chief auditor went on to review spreadsheets for the year to June 2022, tested their formulae and the integrity of the data put into them, and checked to see the assumptions made sense and fit with previous years.
The application of funding was "materially correct", chief executive Chappie Te Kani told minister Kelvin Davis in a report on 14 July, the OIA said.
Davis said in response to parliamentary written questions in June that Oranga Tamariki had let him down.
It had not released the review that shut down the project "except for the recent release to Radio New Zealand under the Official Information Act".
"I would note I was not advised of the projects' closures nor did I receive a copy of the review until just prior to the recent OIA release. I have expressed to Oranga Tamariki that I expect better."
Total costs before the project was closed had been $1.274m to mid 2021, he said.