7 Apr 2016

Change in NZ aid delivery to Cooks will increase efficiency

10:52 am on 7 April 2016
Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown

Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown Photo: Phillipa Webb / Cook Islands News

The Cook Islands minister of finance, Mark Brown, said New Zealand's move towards paying the bulk of its aid directly into the country's national budget will make things a lot easier.

The announcement was made last week by the New Zealand foreign minister, Murray McCully, at a joint ministerial meeting on Aitutaki.

Up to now most of the money has been managed by New Zealand foreign affairs officials.

The finance minister Mark Brown said in the past few years New Zealand development assistance in sectors like education and tourism had already been paid under a performance based budget process.

"The process is aimed at reducing the transaction costs so you don't have separate monitoring and evaluation systems for the programmes that are being funded through these monies, you can use the national systems as much as possible."

Mark Brown said a number of milestones and performance indicators must be achieved.