Wellington
It often seems like a cute CRI contrivance - operating surpluses, taxes and profit/losses -seeing as the research institutes obtain a majority of their income from government fundinganyway……
But
The same CRIs all reported earlier this year (summary
So it has, with a collective deficit after tax of $12.4m, compared to a $12.5m surplus a yearbefore. Before taxation, the CRIs reported an operating surplus that was up $5.3m on last year to$30.4m.
Other financial figures revealed were an increase in operating expenses of $4.7m to $657.4m,taxes paid up $33.7m to reach $40m and total assets increasing by $12m to be valued at $7.13.9m.
Of particular note, and maybe of concern, is that though operating income increased 1.5%, thelargest movement was from government revenue. This increased by $26.8m to $356.7m.
Conversely, 'sales' decreased by $21.1m to $302m.
Does this mean contracts with the private sector fell?
Hard to say really.
There's so many loops within loops, and dealings with other government departments that don'tnecessarily get counted as a sale……and well, you can make accounting add up to whatever you wantreally.
What may be more interesting next year is whether, under the recently released statements of corepurpose, the CRIs (and Statistics NZ) breakdown sales into something that's more immediatelyobvious.
Probably shouldn't hold our breath!