OIA documents show in 2023, the Manukau Urban Māori Authority (MUMA), run by Willie Jackson’s wife, enjoyed a significant contract bonanza.
Coincidentally, Jackson was appointed Associate Minister of Social Development on 1 February 2023.
In under nine months, the Ministry of Social Development handed MUMA eight contracts worth a whopping $5,144,224.
Notably, with the 2023 election just months away, the Ministry and MUMA entered into three new three-year contracts worth millions of dollars.
The only previous three-year contract between MSD and MUMA was signed in September 2020 — also under a Labour government, and just one month before that election.
By contrast, in the almost two and a half years since the coalition government came to power, MSD and MUMA have signed just eight contracts — averaging just over three contracts per year — worth a mere $1,295,700.
Not one has extended beyond a single year.
More to come….