Grant Payments to Resume as Soon as Possible

Business Development Minister Max Bradford said he and the Ministry of Commerce were working hard to enable business development grant payments to resume as soon as possible.

The payment of grants was suspended temporarily on November 11 because of concern that some Business Development Boards had been issuing grants which were not in line with the criteria they were required to follow.

"Suspending the grant payments was the only responsible course of action in those circumstances. We have been working hard to find a robust solution and I hope to have the matter resolved next week so that grant payments can resume," Mr Bradford said.

"Unfortunately, lobbying through the media by some business development board staff appears to be designed to inflame the situation. This has been most unhelpful," Mr Bradford said.

A review of the Business Development Board Programme has been underway for some time and will be completed by the end of the year.

"The review is to make sure the programme is doing what it was intended to do, and that taxpayer dollars are going where they will do the most good," Mr Bradford said.

"In the meantime I do not consider it appropriate for business development board staff to mount media campaigns to lobby support to protect the status quo."