June 19, 2015 1:00pm by David Farrar

Did Relationships Aotearoa exaggerate their numbers?

Liquidators are running multiple investigations into the financial management of Relationships Aotearoa, while the Government has voiced concerns the group inflated its client numbers.

But Social Development Minister Anne Tolley said she did not want to speculate over whether that was the reason the organisation was reluctant to hand over its files.

She appeared before Parliament’s social services committee, along with ministry chiefs, on Wednesday to answer questions over the performance of her ministry and its contracts.

“I’ve certainly got some worries about some of the discrepancies we’re seeing; in the numbers of clients and staff, with what was said publicly and what is actually coming through [from the liquidators].”

Relationships Aotearoa had claimed it served about 30,000 clients in a full year, and had about 7000 on its books at any one time. In later reports, that figure was lowered to about 4000.

“It doesn’t look anything like that,” Tolley said.

It is understood liquidators believe the number to be closer to 700.

If this is confirmed, this will be very interesting. Labour were cheerleaders for RA, and saying that the Government should just give them more and more money.