Wellington, March 25 NZPA - It will take more money and time to bring the Corrections Department up to scratch, State Services Commissioner Iain Rennie said today.

Appearing before the law and order select committee, Mr Rennie defended his report into who should be held accountable for failings within the department's parole service.

His report followed one by Auditor-General Kevin Brady last month which sparked speculation that Corrections chief executive Barry Matthews or parole head Katrina Casey may lose their jobs.

Mr Brady looked at 100 parole cases, including 52 high risk offenders, and found that in most cases correct procedures were not followed.

Staff did not even carry out some of the special provisions brought in after parolee Graeme Burton murdered Karl Kuchenbecker in January 2007.

Corrections Minister Judith Collins has refused to express confidence in Mr Matthews since Mr Brady's report and the follow-up report by the SSC into accountability.

Mr Rennie found Mr Matthews was accountable for his department but sacking him would not be justified.

Mr Rennie told MPs today Mr Matthews had made improvements in the past across the whole department and significant progress in the last two years in the probation service.

There was long running institutional problems throughout the department -- which also runs prisons -- that took time to solve.

In the probation service non-compliance with procedures had improved from 60 percent in 2007 to 80 percent in 2008 and were on target to reach 85 percent by the end of this year.

Mr Rennie said many of the procedures were being reviewed as they added nothing to public safety.

The service had been responsible for dealing with new and complex sentencing orders and changes to procedures following the murder of Mr Kuchenbecker.

The service had received more funding but not enough to meet demand.

More resources would be needed considering the "magnitude of the task" and it would take years to reach the standards that everyone would expect, Mr Rennie said.

Labour MP Rick Barker told Mr Rennie that as Mr Matthews employer the "failure of Corrections is your failure".

Mr Rennie disagreed and said problems within the department were widely known by ministers.

During a sometimes heated meeting, Mr Barker also implied that Mr Rennie had colluded with the committee chairwoman Sandra Goudie before the meeting about questions and answers.

The pair said this was not true.

NZPA PAR il dj