Comment received.
Russell Garbutt
2012/04/29 at 3:54 pm
Doesn’t it seem incredible that the DIA, when presented with an enquiry that on the surface appears to be more than dodgy, chooses to get a local investigator to phone one of the people involved, that investigator issues a warning to that person that things are being looked at for any future applications, chooses not to follow up with the appropriate people within the pokie fund – even when these people have what appears to be solid evidence that moves were made to obscure just who was really asking for grants. Did the DIA investigate with people like SPARC? Not to my knowledge. Seems to me that when anything is just a little bit too hard then the DIA run for the hills. Frankly, I can’t think of any work that the DIA have done in recent times that has really resulted in anything other than warning dodgy operations into becoming more covert.
*Sport New Zealand (Sport NZ) is the new name for the government organisation responsible for sport and recreation (formerly SPARC). -Eds
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See today’s story at Sunday Star Times by senior writer Steve Kilgallon
Pokie Funds: Case closed without call to whistleblower
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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr
What if? Dunedin... 
Suddenly, it’s all on again at DIA. Media pressure and other concerns in the public eye have shifted ‘perspectives’ and the ‘bureaucrats’ have crawled out of bed. Interesting times.
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### ODT Online Thu, 17 May 2012
Pokies trust under scrutiny
By Hamish McNeilly
The Office of the Auditor-general is looking at the trust embroiled in an alleged pokies funding scandal involving the Otago Rugby Football Union. An Auditor-general spokeswoman confirmed recently it had been asked to “look at a range of issues relating to The Trusts Charitable Foundation (TTCF) in the last few years”. The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) last month confirmed it was “in the process of completing an in-depth audit” of TTCF.
Read more
Yep. Media and/or public pressure, at maximum voltage, works every time. Disproves the notion of many ‘that there is nothing you can do about ‘it’. ‘Everyone’ does ‘it’.