Former NZ Film Commission boss David Strong paid over half a million dollars’ leave and severance for nine months’ work

Former New Zealand Film Commission boss David Strong stepped down in August 2022 after a four-month period of paid leave. Photo / Supplied

The New Zealand Film Commission has paid former boss David Strong well over half a million dollars in leave and severance payments after just nine months in the role.

Strong’s paid leave period and his departure were precipitated by concerns related to the management of conflicts of interest arising from his role as head of the NZ Film Commission and his ongoing personal interest in a proposed television series, The Pilgrim.

A key job of the commission is to distribute public funding to film projects, and in February 2022 commission staff were told that The Pilgrim would be put forward for commission funding (ultimately, it was not).

The Herald understands Strong effectively went on paid leave from the chief executive job from the end of March until August 5, the date of his departure from the organisation in 2022.

His severance payment totalled $438,700, considerably more than his annual salary. A source not authorised to speak publicly on the matter confirmed the details to the Herald.

The commission disclosed that the earnings of a single employee in the 21/22 financial year fell in its top salary band of $310,000-$320,000.

In its 22/23 annual report, it revealed that “one employee received compensation in relation to cessation to the value of $438,700. Compensation includes all employee benefits such as salary, annual leave, holiday pay, and cessation payments.”

The source told the Herald that Strong agreed to step down from his role at the commission in 2022 as part of a negotiated financial settlement with the board.

It was then chaired by Dame Kerry Prendergast, former mayor of Wellington. Her term has since ended without renewal.

In addition to the lump sum payout, Strong received a salary of some $100,000 while on the period of paid leave.

He was hired in July 2021, and worked actively in the role for just nine months.

Several weeks after Strong’s departure in August 2022, the commission released the executive summary of an independent review of his conflict of interest disclosures and of the Film Commission Board’s management of them.

It summarised: “the board and David Strong both had opportunities to better handle the disclosure and management of his [Strong’s] conflicts of interest. Inadequately documented decisions and discussions, gaps in the implementation of these decisions, breakdowns in communication and information flows, and blurred accountabilities were significant contributing factors to the events that unfolded.”

Strong did not respond to the Herald’s request for comment, made through Craftinc., the Wellington-based film and television production house which he co-owns with his wife, Wanda Lepionka.

Under the provisions of the Official Information Act, the commission’s head of legal and business affairs Marion Heppner refused to confirm details of Strong’s salary and severance.

Former Film Commission CEO David Strong received more than $500,000 in severance and leave after just nine months' work. Photo / supplied

Heppner claimed the information is private and that it is not outweighed by the public interest in disclosure, despite several recent and similar cases in which the Ombudsman’s involvement has prompted both the Department of Internal Affairs and the polytech Te Pūkenga to reverse earlier decisions related to keeping private chief executive salaries and severance secret.

In both cases, the public agencies, on reconsideration, gave a greater weighting to the public interest in transparency and accountability in the spending of public funds.

Heppner also refused, on privacy grounds, to disclose the date on which Strong’s paid leave period began.

The commission also told the Herald that acting chief executive Mladen Ivancic (who took the reins while Strong was on leave) began his duties in April 2022, however, it told another OIA requestor that he took up those duties in March 2022. The Herald asked the commission to explain the discrepancy but spokeswoman Melissa Booth declined.

She noted only that: “the matters you are exploring relate to an employment situation managed in 2022 by a previous board and chair”.

“A lot of work has been done by NZFC over the last two years to improve conflict of interest management.”

A spokesman for the Minister for Arts Culture and Heritage, Paul Goldsmith said he “can’t speak to the Film Commission’s operational matters”.

New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union policy and public affairs manager James Ross told the Herald that “bureaucrats already earning more than ministers shouldn’t be paid hundreds of thousands of dollars more not to do their jobs”.

If accurate, Ross said, the Strong payout is “just the latest in a long string of enormous public sector golden goodbyes that officials have tried to keep hidden from the public”.

Irene Gardiner, president of the NZ screen producers’ guild, Spada (which in 2022 raised questions about Strong’s position at the Film Commission and his continued interest in The Pilgrim) said: “it’s never great to see what looks like wasted money in an industry as tight for funding as ours.”

But she described the issue as “an employment matter that needed to be sorted, and it now is”.