North Shore Times (New Zealand)
Quarter of AT flights were business class
Auckland Transport (AT) staff flew business class 50 times in a 19-month window.
The Auckland Councilcontrolled organisation spent $600,000 between January 2016 and August 2017 on 213 flights, records released to Stuff under the Local Government Official Information Act show.
131 were to Australia, none of which were business class.
AT staff flew to 13 other countries, including South Korea, Singapore, Norway, Spain and Canada.
Of these 82 flights 50 were business class.
Last week after it was revealed Auckland Council had spent more than $1 million on international flights, 104 of which were business class, between January 2016 and August 2017.
Like Auckland Council, Auckland Transport’s travel policy allowed staff to fly business class travel if they were flying for more than eight hours and where a recuperation period of 24 hours was not available.
A return business class flight from Auckland to Singapore on Air New Zealand in late November cost about $5100.
Since January 2016, council controlled organisation Watercare spent $129,000 on flights, and one flight was business class.
Watercare’s destinations were Singapore, Australia, the United States, South Africa, United Kingdom, Spain, and France.
Auckland Councillor Efeso Collins called for better transparency and said it was time for Auckland Council senior management to resign.
‘‘If people are making these types of decisions and they know ratepayers are looking and thinking it’s a complete waste then they
‘‘They should leave the organisation if they're not prepared to be prudent and responsible with their spending.’’ Auckland Councillor Efeso Collins
should fall on their swords,’’ he said.
‘‘I don’t know who runs this city, whether it’s the elected people of Auckland city or whether it’s the civil service.’’
Auckland Council also recently came under pressure for spending when its annual report showed about 19 per cent of its 11,893 employees earned more than $100,000 in the year to July.
The pay rates were labelled ‘‘a disgrace’’ by the Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance.