NZQA Inquiry into Sale of Computers

By NICHOLS, Lane

THE Qualifications Authority is investigating claims that a moonlighting employee is selling the government department’s old computers on Trade Me from a Lower Hutt state house.

The inquiry follows an admission from the education agency that it destroys surplus computers or sells them to staff — rather than donating them to cash-short schools as some other government departments do.

Wellington man Graham McCready, whose not-for-profit organisation donates cheap computers to schools, says he bought five Dell hard drives from the man in the past year for about $50 each.

The seller claimed he was an authority staff member who had been given the computers when they became surplus.

One has “Property of NZQA” still printed on its side.

Mr McCready said the man, whom he knew as “Geoff”, had at least 20 computers at his Oxford Tce state house when he picked up one last month. He also has numerous computers listed for sale on Trade Me under his seller name, Kiwi56, and more than 700 positive feedback comments.

A profile shows his photo and describes him as an IT service analyst.

The man denied involvement when approached by The Dominion Post at his home and later refused to comment further.

Mr McCready said the man had told him he could soon supply newer Pentium 4 computers which the authority was about to “scrap”.

The seller’s actions are not unlawful. However, the claims have led to calls for a crackdown.

National’s education spokeswoman, Katherine Rich, said education officials should explain why taxpayer-funded computers were allegedly being sold over the Internet by authority staff.

“Reports of cash payments and dispatches from an employee’s home don’t sound like proper process to me. If these allegations are correct, this is contrary to Government policy for the disposal of property, plus an embarrassing faux pas for NZQA.”

Ms Rich said government organisations were encouraged to donate used computers to the Computer Access New Zealand Trust (Canz), which refurbished machines and gave them to schools and community groups.

Many schools relied on the donations to provide classroom computer technology and the authority should explain why its PCs were not being recycled for the betterment of children’s learning.

“The ministry must explain what progress has been made with the internal investigation and assure taxpayers that NZQA staff are not profiteering for the disposal of government property.”

Mr McCready has complained to the Qualifications Authority after he said the State Services Commission told him staff were barred from disposing of taxpayer-funded computers.

“(Geoff) told me he was an employee and said they were throwing them out so he encouraged them to simply give them to him.”

Qualifications Authority deputy chief executive Keith Marshall said the agency was aware of the allegations and actively investigating.

He would not reveal details about the alleged seller or the investigation.

Mr Marshall confirmed that obsolete computers were either destroyed or offered to staff at “an estimated market rate” but without software or operating systems.

Canz had no role in the disposal of authority computers.

Asked why an organisation charged with overseeing pupils’ qualifications did not donate its computers to needy schools, Mr Marshall said: “We are currently looking at options to do so.”

State Services Commission spokesman Jason Ryan said government departments were expected to consider offering surplus computers to schools, communities or other departments.

But policies on offering obsolete equipment to staff were a matter for individual departments. The commission did not sell computers to employees and disposed of them through Canz-accredited resellers, he said.

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