PM wanted to be told about BMW deal
The Government should have been told one of its departments decided to sell three-year-old BMWs and buy new ones, Prime Minister John Key says.
The Government has been criticised for selling the relatively new fleet of 34 luxury limos and replacing it with brand new BMWs in tough economic times.
The new cars sell commercially for about $200,000 each but the Government gets a discount for bulk buying. The actual cost is not being stated, for commercial reasons.
Internal Affairs had defended the sales saying they made good financial sense.
Mr Key revealed this afternoon that the Government was not kept in the loop about the decision. A six-year deal for the cars was signed by Labour with a three-year rollover clause.
"That decision to invoke that rollover and bring new cars in was made by the Department of Internal Affairs without reference either to their minister or to me," he said.
Mr Key found out about the new cars when one of the drivers told him last week.
The department did not think it had to check as it had authority from the former Labour Government.
"I can't take responsibility for a contract that was entered into by the previous Labour Government, that wasn't bought to my attention or to my ministers' attention," Mr Key said.
"I am surprised, I would've thought they (Internal Affairs) would have referenced it to us... politically we should have known about it, we didn't."
He said Internal Affairs did understand sensitivities about spending but felt they got a good deal.
Mr Key said it was too late to say whether his Government would have approved the purchase or not and the cars were due to arrive in New Zealand soon. They would not be returned because of the high cost that would incur.
A spokesman for Internal Affairs told NZPA there was no requirement to inform the Government about its decision to chose the option of buying new vehicles.
"It's our contract, we administer it. Our assessment was it was the best value for money to replace the vehicles now and we got a good deal in the first place and we got a good deal now," he said.
Had the cars been kept they would have lost value and the resale price would be considerably lower.
"The gap between the price of a new car and a second-hand one selling is greater so you are actually losing more money."
The value of the cars being sold was close to their purchase price and the Department said the contract offered the lowest annual operating costs of comparable cars due to fuel efficiency and tyre costs.
If they had decided to keep the cars and not buy new ones there would have been no penalty.
Earlier, Finance Minister Bill English when the contract came up for renewal the Government would see if there was a better deal and probably a "more mainstream model of car".
Green Party Co-leader Metiria Turei said the Government needed to release figures proving it was value for money given the extravagance of the cars and previous spending by Ministers on expenses.
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Comments and questions19
Great resons to get rid of those overpaid public servants. This smacks of a plot to get back at the govt for announcing more job cuts in the public service.....Helen Kelly, well done, good move !!!!
First, how did key not know about the cars as i remember seeing it in the dominion post ? about 3-4 months, Have all Kiwi's had enough yet of being bent over by this government? they give us a tax cut rise GST and all cost of living has gone up, why so they can give themselves a pay rise, back pay to July and if that is not enough a $4000. bonus, all done while government is on holiday, has someone done the costing to see how much all that is costing us Tax payers and over how many government staff are we paying for as we all struggle. As a taxpayer i donot remember giving them permission or even being asked if they could do this??? And then on top $200,000,000. on cars, who apart from parliament servants has the money to buy the 2nd hand cars, why are they not catching trains and buses like we all do, do they use all those cars at once? looking at the state of the polititions they all need the exercise, Transport companies are struggling and the government is using there RUC money to upgrade the rail lines, stations and new trains are here also, was anyone asked about those, once again taking money from the people that are struggling for there own benefits, when will this stop, I have had enough. there is another way.
Good God Nikki, I bet your glad you got that comment in. Frankly you are talking a lot of rubbish, mind you if you belong to the Keith Locke brigade I can understand your struggle!
The usual rabble-rousing politics of envy. My stomach was not strong enough to watch populist garbage on sainsbury show.
As anyone who has ever financed a car would know, the monthly leasing cost is probably unchanged. I also wonder if the deal may have been done by the labour drones still deeply implanted in the public sector to embarrass the government.
Why do people mindlessly think the government is spending somewhere north of $100,000 on each car? It is not like they are giving the old cars away; they will be sold and a 3 year old BMW that was acquired at a substantial discount to cost will not depreciate an awful lot. It is tiring to see this inane obsession with the small details, in the overall picture the expenditure is minimal, and important. We are a civilised country, it is important that our leaders have respectable vehicles. And for gods sake, they are just diesel BMWs, not Bentleys or Maybachs.
A fleet of BMW's are a hell of a lot cheaper than an A4 in storage...........
(Skyhawk not Audi)
Excuse Me. If you think that is a lot of Rubbish, can you please explain to me which one of those comments is a lot of Rubbish? What seems to be the only Rubbish i see is your comment about Keithe Locke, who ever he is. With a comment like that, I hope i am not wasting my a hard earned Tax money on you.
But they have not sold, so therefore they at this time in our Economy with so many Nz'rs struggling, mainly with the high Tax's and the amount of tax's on Tax's we all have to pay, especially in small NZ business,......... and general living, This is a huge amount of money expense especially ontop of the Huge pay increase, Huge bonus, Huge backpay. Where is all this money coming from?? what part of the Tax system?? .
The other expense is all these cars get stored at a car yard for $40.00 per week per car x 52 weeks x 3 years. what part of our Tax's system does that come out of??
Another 'identity of the peg' cultural marxist courtesy of the Frankfurt School. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Nikki, all you are doing in your comments is showing your ignorance of our electoral and political system. One can only assume from your comments that your ignorance is based on petty envy and annoyance that your political opinions are no longer held valid by most of the electorate. For example, why on earth would any government want taxpayer permission for every bureaucratic decision? It is only your pointless self-importance that leads to such baseless rambles.
If there are no people in the private sector MAKING money there will no money for anyone else. The old anecdote below should be read:
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that's what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve.
"Since you are all such good customers", he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20". Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his "fair share?"
They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.
And so:
The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).
Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.
"I only got a dollar out of the $20," declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man, "but he got $10!"
"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I!"
"That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!"
"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.
The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!
And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.
I uderstand they are paying out $6 Million dollars for the deal whcih works out to $2 Million dollars a year then there is the upkeep.
Who is going to buy the old cars and what price.?
I can see the National brigade go down in a screaming heap.
I understand that the Maoris will be given some more payouts and land deals soon [ Probably more backroom deals.] I thought there was about 4000 who signed a petition against this sort of going on and the Govt is turning a blind eye to it.?
Apparently what will happen once the Maori get this deal signed off. Overseas buyers will come in and buy the land which I understand to contain Iron sand and process it and most of the money will go of shore.
I understand John Key still is involved in the World banking system so its his interest to do this deal as he will gain from it in his back pocket.
Nikki.... you are not paying your hard earned Tax money on me! I would suggest quite the reverse, unless of course your tax bill was in excess of $60k as mine was. Enjoy the fruits of my labour!
Over and out!
You must also be a Politition, I am living in the real world, I see things as they really are out here, having to pay for everything myself and also paying all the tax that we are to pay, why should the government not be answerable to the New Zealander, after all is it not us that put you in power? and is it not us that pays for everything you do and buy through our tax system? ? please tell me if im wrong, I am more aware of how the real political system works probably more than you are, Petty Envy for what the polititions running our country to the ground and making the hard working nzder pay dearly through the nose for Tax's to keep all those polititions in the life style that they think they deserve? its about time they started thinking of the small businesses and the hard working Kiwis, put some money back in there pockets instead of always lining there own, without consultation from the voters.
The real Maoris under Sovereignty of Queen of England are not allowed to sell the land, Now the plastic Maoris in the political sector would sell the land, i have no doubt what you say about John Key and the banking system is correct.
was yours in excess of 60K cause you have been sucking off the system/people and you had high earnings at the same time??
What i really liked this was the lack of Phil Goof articles yay
week even
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