The New Zealand High Court has been asked to overturn the Health Ministry’s decision to take away the state-funded counseling contract from the Problem Gambling Foundation. The ministry wants to give the contract to the Salvation Army, although a compromise was arranged to delay that until February.
Wellington lawyer Mai Chen, managing partner at Chen Palmer Public and Employment Law Specialists, is expected to claim that the ministry based its review process on politics rather than the PGF’s performance record. PGF has criticized the gaming industry and the SkyCity convention center, while a 2011 report showed it had met 100 percent of its service targets in 2010. The report also noted that PGF’s independence meant the ministry had reduced “control over areas such as political neutrality”.
PGF Chief Executive Graeme Ramsey said 52 of the organization’s 63 employees would lose their jobs if the contract is taken away. “We have a good case. I think when you’ve got a process that gives you a strange result, then you’ve got to question both the design of the process and the way it was conducted. We think it was fundamentally flawed and acted to the disadvantage of PGF, and clearly the work we do and the clients we serve. All we want is a fair and robust process.”
In an ironic twist, the PGF, partnering with the Salvation Army, already won a judicial review against the ministry when the two groups took action over the ministry’s calculation of open-air space relative to a smoking lounge at the SkyCity casino.
The Health Ministry said it would be “inappropriate” to comment on the case, but a spokesman said the agency was “satisfied it followed an appropriate and robust procurement process” that was reviewed by consultants Pricewaterhouse Coopers.
