DOC to spend $12m to save $7m a year (Financial Year - Stuff-co.nz)

      The Conservation Department will spend about $12 million on its organisational review over two years – for a project that intends to save $7m a year.

Financial Year

It included $3.4m in "one-off costs" over the 2011-12 financial year, and a further $3m for the 2012-13 financial year.

Budget Deficit

The department also had to pay more than $6m in redundancy costs, after laying off more than 96 staff in last year's restructuring.

Spokesman Rory Newsam said the process would eventually achieve "ongoing and permanent" savings of about $7m per year.

"These are one-off costs. [The review's expenses] cover things like purchasing new equipment and computer programmes for the shared services system along with staff training and property costs," he said.

The Budget allocated about $335m to the department for the next financial year.

Mr Newsam said the review of its area offices, such as the ones in Twizel and Aoraki-Mt Cook, has been put on hold for the next year.

"We are able to meet our budget requirements for the coming financial year and still maintain our national targets for field work like pest control or threatened species work," he said.

Mr Newsam said the moves were to make the department more nationally focused, while it also wanted to establish closer relationships with the tourism industry.

Green Party MP Eugenie Sage criticised the moves.

"The department seems to go through these fads every few years," she said.