My conclusion (which should sound vaguely familiar) – our priorities as a country are completely screwed. If we put as much energy into cracking down on economic crime as we did chasing welfare cheats – we could afford a proper welfare system…. –Anthony Robins, The Standard 21.10.14
### radionz.co.nz Updated at 1:17 pm on 19 October 2014
Sunday Morning – sunday@radionz.co.nz
Economic crime costs up to $9.4bn
By Jeremy Rose
Economic crime is costing New Zealand up to $9.4 billion a year according to a draft Serious Fraud Office (SFO) report obtained by Radio New Zealand.
█ Listen to a full discussion of the document on Sunday Morning (48:55) {Citifleet gets a sound bite}
At the beginning of last year the then Minister for the SFO, Anne Tolley, was reported as saying that a number of Government ministries had been working for two years on a report quantifying the cost of economic crime and it would be presented to Cabinet in the near future.
But the report did not make it to Cabinet and was not released.
█ Read the SFO draft report obtained by Radio New Zealand
Radio New Zealand obtained a draft copy of the SFO’s report under the Official Information Act. The methodologies that would have made it possible to calculate the total costs were redacted.
However, Radio New Zealand has also obtained a copy of the report with the estimated costs of the various types of economic crime included – which put the total cost of economic crime at between $6.1 and $9.4 billion.
The report noted that was more than twice the combined annual budgets of police, the Department of Corrections, and the courts; more than the total net profit of New Zealand’s top 200 companies and top 30 financial institutions; or the equivalent of $2000 for every adult living in New Zealand.
Read more
![SFO Economic Crime [RNZ graphic]](https://dunedinstadium.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/sfo-economic-crime-rnz-graphic.png)
[Graphic: Radio New Zealand – some estimates in the report]
****
ODT 20.10.14 (page 8)
● ODT 16.10.14 Feeley speaks up for SFO
● ODT 18.10.14 SCF witness omission puzzles
—
Posted by Elizabeth Kerr
What if? Dunedin... 
At a pre election meeting of the Green Party in Wanaka, I suggested to Russel Norman that if the Green Party gained a position in the government they could raise the $520 million they required by stopping public service fraud rather than an increase in the highest personal tax rate. Norman advised that his party and indeed he had no policy or knowledge of such theft. Until politicians are held accountable for poor public service governance and public money management we will continue to be robbed blind by that public service.
Cars; why would Russel Norman want to know about what you suggested? After all, he is part of the problem, in fact all the politicians are, it is known as entitlement. They all take it, big and small and it comes in multitudinous forms. Here in little old Dunedin we see it in spades. Over inflated salaries and benefits. Free travel to exotic places. Why, in just the last month or two Mayor Dave Cull has been out of the country on ratepayers’ cash for about three weeks and is currently in China for two. Together, I might add, with a small army of hangers on. Which one of them would wish to undo that?