The organisation received a letter of offer - a brief layout of the service expected and the funding potentially allocated - from the ministry late last week, but it arrived seven days after the last contract ran out.
The ministry yesterday apologised ‘‘if that [delay] has created uncertainty’’.
Rape Crisis Dunedin community educator and media liaison Anna Hoek-Sims said the delay meant the organisation would now have to negotiate the contract and hold collective meetings to discuss the details.
‘‘While this takes place, we will only open from Monday to Thursday 9am to 5pm.’’
It had not been able to renew the contracts of two staff members, meaning the organisation was left working with an office staff of six instead of eight.
Staff worked 20 hours a week, meaning there were not enough to cover Fridays.
Two people would miss out on wages until the contracts could be renewed.
The cut to the service meant people would have to leave messages on Fridays if they needed Rape Crisis’ services, with volunteers dealing with them after 5pm on Fridays, and at weekends.
Ms Hoek-Sims said the service’s phone line would still operate 24 hours a day, except between 9am and 5pm on Fridays.
There was a contact at the Dunedin Police Station if people were suffering a crisis on Fridays.
Ms Hoek-Sims said the previous contract was a three-year contract, as was the new one.
The old contract ended on June 30, and the organisation got the letter of offer on July 7.
‘‘Normally in any business negotiation you would have a contract in advance of your current contract’s end date.
‘‘Why we received it a week after our contract expired I’m not sure.’’
MSD partnering for outcomes regional manager Moira Underdown said the ministry tried to notify services about funding decisions before the end of the financial year, ‘‘but sometimes that process takes slightly longer than anticipated’’.
In the case of Rape Crisis Dunedin, there had been ‘‘a slight delay’’, but after a verbal offer was made a letter of offer had been sent.
‘‘We are sorry if that has created uncertainty. We encourage organisations to have contingency plans if there are delays at the end of a financial year in notifying providers of funding decisions.’’
Ms Underdown said Rape Crisis Dunedin recently attended a hui to discuss new funding proposals for family and sexual violence support.
‘‘It was indicated additional funding would be made available to services that met contractual requirements.’’
