"Why didn't anyone speak up?" he asked, after the Government announced yesterday it was pumping another $8.5 million in to keep the doors open at the Greymouth-based polytechnic, hard on the heels of a $3.6 million bail-out last April.
Also yesterday, the Tertiary Education Commission revealed Tai Poutini Polytechnic was indebted by $24.8m from the under-delivery of courses between 2010 and 2015. The TEC is preparing to write-off that debt.
It said the West Coast institute had failed to deliver enough training hours across a range of courses. For example, in some of the scaffolding programmes students had received as little as 10% of the teaching hours they were meant to.
That meant that that in a course where students were expected to receive nearly 200 hours of training, they did only 20 hours.
Mr Kokshoorn said the news was a disaster for the West Coast "in more ways than one".
"This type of situation ruins the reputation of the West Coast ... it tarnishes our reputation hugely throughout the region.
"All those involved in the past six years (to 2016) should hang their heads in shame.
"How can 200-hour courses be delivered in 20 hours? The previous board, right down to tutors, would have known it was under-performing and under-delivering on courses. Why didn't anyone speak up?"
In fact, they did.
In 2015, the Greymouth Star widely reported accusations from the Search and Rescue Institute of New Zealand (SARINZ) that the Tai Poutini Polytechnic was putting lives at risk and rorting the system.
Then-polytechnic chief executive Allan Sargison dismissed the claims as baseless.
The next real sign of trouble was in late 2016, when a significant deficit was forecast and a Crown manager was put in charge.
Then, three months ago Tai Poutini was downgraded to a category 4 designation from the New Zealand Qualification Authority in its 2013-17 external evaluation review - the lowest designation NZQA can assign.
It then temporarily partnered with the Southern Institute of Technology, based in Invercargill.
Despite the troubles, Mr Kokshoorn said he opposed a permanent merger because it would take a large number of administrative jobs off the West Coast.
"It would further hurt our economy," he said.
"Let's start building this institution in a way we can be proud of."
West Coast-Tasman MP Damien O'Connor said he was also not convinced the polytechnic needed to merge.
"We need really good, strong local governance."
The polytechnic was one of the "jewels in the crown" of the West Coast economy, Mr O'Connor said today.
- by Laura Mills
