A former volunteer at Victim Support says too many Kiwis hurt by crime and trauma are missing out on help because the charity's system doesn't work properly and there are not enough volunteers.
It follows allegations that managers at Victim Support bullied and harassed both paid and volunteer staff members.
Victim Support was set up to help victims of crime and trauma and said it now deals with more than 40,000 a year. But former volunteer Claire Buckley questions that number.
"I would imagine that's in little la la land of their minds. I don't think that's something they could actually back up with any firm data," she told Newshub.
"I say that because they can't provide data to the Government so how could they possibly say they support 44,000 victims a year."
Newshub asked Victim Support board chairperson Lorraine Scanlon if they do help 40,000 Kiwi victims a year.
"Forty-three-thousand victims was the number for the last year. That is recorded in our database, so there is evidence of that work," she said.
Buckley claims Victim Support operates a system that doesn't work and provides inadequate training and not enough volunteers.
"There are so many victims missing out in New Zealand, so many victims missing out. There's not nearly enough volunteers, and the volunteers that there are cannot possibly cover all the victims," Buckley said.
"Police stop referring because they know that Victim Support isn't going to be able to be there. So they just don't bother referring."
Police told Newshub they had spoken to staff and weren't aware of any instances of this, but Victim Support acknowledged staffing shortages during a tough COVID-19 period.
"We have a roster system and people can't always make their roster. We absolutely understand that. We want to support people to volunteer when they can with whatever they can," Scanlon said.
Buckley said she witnessed bullying by managers and is upset that a recent report into bullying and harassment at Victim Support won't be publicly released in full.
At least three managers left before the report was finished, among them a woman who earlier resigned from another high-profile job following a scathing report.
"It's absolutely abhorrent and the board remained tightlipped on all of this," victims' advocate Ruth Money said.
Scanlon said she stands by the fact that they employed their senior managers to do the job they were doing. Asked if she regretted hiring the woman who had resigned from another high-profile job, she said she doesn't regret it.
"It was the job she was hired to do at the time."
Victim Support is an independent charitable organisation, and while it's not a government agency, it does have a close working relationship with the Ministry of Justice, its primary funder.
It receives about $16 million a year.
Ruth Money said it's time Victim Support had an overhaul, starting at the top.
"Victims survivors in New Zealand deserve so much better than they are getting and we need to rebuild it from scratch, we need to fund it appropriately and we need to have the appropriate people in there with special services, which we don't have."
Scanlon said they are listening to the views of their people.
The Ministry of Justice told Newshub that, recent issues notwithstanding, it is satisfied Victim Support is meeting its contractual obligations and performing all required functions.
In a LinkedIn post on Monday, the organisation's new CEO James McCulloch said he was sad to hear the stories told to Newshub, but needed to hear them. He said he also identified a number of areas to improve within the organisation.
