Serco contract should be cancelled rather than not renewed

The Serco contract should be immediately cancelled rather than merely just not being renewed, the Green Party says.

The New Zealand Herald has reported that Cabinet has accepted the recommendation of Corrections chief executive Ray Smith that the Serco contract should not be extended from six years to 10 years.

“Not extending Serco’s contract is the first sensible thing that the Government has done in relation to Serco’s management of Mt Eden Prison,” said Green Party corrections spokesperson David Clendon.

“However, if the management of Mt Eden Prison by Serco is bad enough for the contract not to be renewed, then the evidence to date shows that it is sufficient for it to be immediately cancelled.

“It is astounding that the contract wasn’t cancelled before, and it is unacceptable the Government has dragged its feet for this long.

“The Government needs to guarantee that Serco will not be allowed back into Mt Eden for the remainder of the contract and that Serco will bear the full cost of the Government’s continued ‘stepping in’.

“The attention now must go on Serco’s management of Wiri Prison.

“If Serco is not good enough for Mt Eden, how can it be good enough for Wiri? The Government should admit defeat and pull the plug on its private prison experiment all together.

“In July, the Minister said the review into Serco’s management of Mt Eden also included their management of other prisons including Wiri.

“The Minister now needs to tell the public what issues and concerns have come out over Wiri during the review,” said Mr Clendon.

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