Pasifika Futures Ltd, recently a Government-funded Whānau Ora commissioning agency, used the public contract to hire the Ah Mau Sports and Wellbeing Consultancy Ltd, appearing to favour close relatives of its chief executive.
Ah Mau Sports and Wellbeing is owned and controlled by Rose and Leeson Ah Mau, the daughter and son-in-law of Debbie Sorensen.
Sorensen is the chief executive of the charity, Pasifika Medical Association Group (PMA), which includes Pasifika Futures.
In 2023-24 she was also listed in group disclosures as chief executive of Pasifika Futures, then the Whānau Ora commissioning agency for Pasifika families.
In the fiscal years 2022-23 and 2023-24, PMA cited Ah Mau Sports and Wellbeing as an “innovation partner” among Pasifika Futures’ partners, of which there were more than 50.
During the period of the contract, Rose Ah Mau was also employed within the PMA as a part-time nurse, and Leeson Ah Mau, a former professional rugby player, was employed full-time as community partnership manager at the professional Super Rugby team Moana Pasifika.
At that time, Sorensen was also a director of both Moana Pasifika Ltd, the company that operated the Moana Pasifika professional rugby team and the shareholding entity, Moana Pasifika Charitable Trust – PMA was a related entity of Moana Pasifika Charitable Trust because four individuals across the entities shared governance and or executive roles, including Sorensen. According to disclosures, she left the boards of both entities in May last year.
Kiki Maoate, PMA chairman, confirmed that the Ah Mau Sports and Wellbeing contract was Whānau Ora funded. He declined to disclose its value, which he said was “commercially sensitive”.
Maoate also provided a statement to the Herald, which emphasised that the charity is “guided by clear values, transparent decision-making and independent oversight”.
“We strongly reject any suggestion of impropriety in our employment, procurement, or funding practices, or any claim that public funds have been used in an inappropriate manner … we operate within established legal and ethical frameworks, undergo regular independent audits, and disclose all related-party transactions in line with financial reporting standards and sector expectations,” he said.
From 2014 until earlier this week, Pasifika Futures held the sizeable Whānau Ora commissioning contract to buy health and wellbeing services for Pasifika families and communities, funded by Te Puni Kōkiri (TPK, the Ministry for Māori Development).
The contract was worth $44m in each of the last two fiscal years (constituting well over half of PMA’s revenue), and, of that, it allowed a contract management fee of up to 20% to the PMA.
TKP recently selected new Whānau Ora commissioning agencies; new, and seemingly stiffened, rules apply. The department says that for commercial reasons, it doesn’t release the terms of its contracts with commissioning agencies.
Responding to further Herald questions, PMA’s lawyer, Aaron Harlowe, said the charity engaged Ah Mau Sports and Wellbeing to deliver a “sports strategy” for the PMA group. He described the Whānau Ora-related contracting of 2022-23 and 2023-24 as “historical”, and said there was no current contract with Ah Mau Sports.
Maoate did not specify what services the Ah Mah Sports and Wellbeing contract with Pasifika Futures Ltd bought.
Asked on June 18 about Whānau Ora-related contracting by Pasifika Futures, including the Sorensen family-related contract, the Minister for Whānau Ora, Tama Potaka, directed the Herald’s questions to TPK.
On June 19, the department’s deputy secretary for regions, Grace Smit, told the Herald TPK had written to the chairman of the Pasifika Futures board seeking “their soonest response to allegations” related to the use of Whānau Ora funds.
On June 27, TPK chief executive Dave Samuels announced that he had initiated a rapid independent review into allegations of inappropriate use of public funding appropriated for Whānau Ora commissioning services.
The review includes consideration of allegations of “conflicts of interest” in contracting decisions by a senior executive.
The two entities under review are Pasifika Futures and Te Pou Matakana Limited.
Te Pou, also known as the Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency, was a Whānau Ora commissioning agency for services for Māori families until the end of last month. There are also questions over its possible use of public funds.
The review, or a summary of it, may be made public, according to the terms of reference.
Maoate said PMA welcomed the independent review and was fully co-operating.
“We believe it is important that this review is allowed to run its course and that any commentary or conclusions are informed by its findings, not speculation,” he said.
Pasifika Futures also funded the Moana Pasifika Charitable Trust through the Whānau Ora contract. This also forms part of the Government review.
In fiscal 2023-24 and previously, the Moana Pasifika Charitable Trust was the shareholding entity for the professional Super Rugby team, Moana Pasifika, operated through Moana Pasifika Ltd. The charitable trust was also responsible for a related community sports programme.
This charitable trust received Whānau Ora funding in at least 2023-24 and 2022-23. The PMA has emphasised that use of these funds was limited to an extensive community sports programme and none flowed to the professional team.
On July 1, 2024, Moana Pasifika Ltd, which was struggling financially, became part of Pasifika Medical Association Group, and the Moana Pasifika Charitable Trust was deregistered several months thereafter.
However, a second Moana Pasifika Charitable Trust was seemingly established at or around the same time.
Harlowe said that, at the time the Moana Pasifika Super Rugby team was absorbed into the PMA, “the Moana Pasifika Charitable Trust was formally established to hold both the professional rugby team and the Moana Pasifika Community Sports Programme”.
The Herald understands that this iteration of the Moana Pasifika Charitable Trust also received Whānau Ora funding in fiscal 2024-25.
PMA has not confirmed that this was the case. Both Maoate and Harlowe have stressed to the Herald that no Whānau Ora funding has been used to support the professional rugby team.
Outside Whānau Ora, both the Crown entity Sport NZ and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade have provided millions of dollars in funding, including grants, a loan and the write-off of interest due, expressly for the benefit of the Moana Pasifika Super Rugby team and for its genesis.
PMA no longer had a contract with Ah Mau Sports, Maoate said.
Asked how Sorensen-family related conflicts were managed, Maoate told the Herald that in a close-knit community, professional and familial ties often intersect.
He said management was: “consistent with those obligations that apply to a registered charity, including that all conflicts are declared and the conflicted person does not participate in the discussion or decision-making process and individual disclosures are undertaken every eight weeks in line with board meetings and considering agendas.
“All board and executive group members update their individual registers eight-weekly and conflicts are noted at each board meeting where action to be taken for example [sic]: excluded from discussion is noted.”
Sorensen’s title is now chief executive officer of the Pasifika Medical Association Group and Moana Pasifika Super Rugby Club. Maoate said she had “held her current title for some time”.
Since August last year, Leeson Ah Mau has been the Moana Pasifika director of sports and wellbeing, employed by PMA.
Since November, Rose Ah Mau has been the Moana Pasifika community sports manager, also employed by PMA.
Maoate told the Herald that all Moana Pasifika staff, including Leeson Ah Mau, were “novated across” to PMA in August 2024 [when PMA acquired the team], so no hiring decision was made when Leeson joined the group.
“He is employed by Pasifika Medical Association to be director of sports and wellbeing in Moana Pasifika Rugby, a position he held prior to the [PMA] acquisition of the rugby club in August 2024,” Maoate said.
Sources close to the charity claimed that Leeson’s job and job title changed and his pay increased when he joined PMA, and that Sorensen was in charge of these decisions. They also claimed that Sorensen was in charge of the hiring of Rose Ah Mau into the Moana Pasifika community sport role last year.
Responding to this contention, the group’s lawyer, Aaron Harlowe, said, “it is incorrect to suggest Ms Sorensen or anyone else made a decision to employ Mr Ah Mau as he was not individually hired, he transferred to the organisation [PMA] on a decision to acquire MP”.
Harlowe said Leeson transferred “from the management team in MP to the management team in PMA (called the ‘executive’). His role remained the same in that he was continuing to work in community sports but this time in a larger organisation on a nationwide basis.”
Harlowe said, in some circumstances, the employees who transferred in from Moana Pasifika received higher salaries than they had previously. He said this depended on the group they transferred to and their responsibilities.
He said Leeson left an executive role at Moana Pasifika, and it would have been inconsistent and inappropriate for him to retain the title of community partnership manager when the term used for all executive roles across the PMA is “director”, and the new role was “a nationwide operation and well beyond rugby”.
Harlowe said Ah Mau’s experience, “being a 200-plus game NRL professional and a dual international representative for Samoa and the Kiwis makes him more than qualified to undertake his role [as PMA’s director of sports]”.
PMA did not directly address the question of who was responsible for hiring Rose Ah Mau into the community sport role last November.
Harlow said that she was already an employee of PMA when hired into the role; that she was hired as a registered nurse in 2021 by the clinical director and nursing director of PMA entity, ETU Pasifika Primary Care Services; and that PMA was not the controlling entity of Moana Pasifika “at the time” of Rose Ah Mau’s hiring into the Moana Pasifika community sport role, and “was not involved in the recruitment process”.
He has otherwise told the Herald that “Moana Pasifika became part of Pasifika Medical Association Group (“PMA”) on July 1, 2024″.
The Herald also asked PMA if either of the Moana Pasifika positions held by the Ah Maus have been funded or partially funded by the Pasifika Futures Whānau Ora contract.
Maoate said Pasifika Futures “does not fund individual roles or FTEs. Funding is provided for programmes. In this case, Pasifika Futures contracted Moana Pasifika to deliver a Community Sports Strategy and related initiatives”.
Both Leeson Ah Mau and Rose Ah Mau were contacted for this story but neither responded.
Following the loss of the Government Whānau Ora contract on July 1, Pasifika Futures Ltd “is now retired”, Maoate said.
In addition, the PMA has been restructuring and has cut staff by 49 positions.