Council ignores advice and drops conflict register

Central Hawke's Bay Mayor Peter Butler

Central Hawke's Bay District Council has opted out of a conflict of interest register, despite being advised to the contrary.

Stephen Mutch, a partner at Ernst & Young in Wellington who audited the CHBDC, reported his firm held discussions with key personnel at the council with regard to the issue.

"[We] have been informed that, after our recommendation to maintain a conflict of interest [CoI] register, the council has decided not to pursue this further as their assessment of the risk is minimal," Mr Mutch said in the report.

"We have recommended to council that steps be taken to clarify and establish a clearer framework as to what represents conflicts.

"The use of external advice to confirm the framework would be beneficial."

When asked why the council had made such a decision, CHB Mayor Peter Butler said: "I can't answer that."

His chief executive John Freeman, who was with the mayor at the time of the interview, said the CHBDC audit committee was looking into whether a register should be started up again.

"We did look at it but it got a bit messy when we looked at it," he said.

"Because a number of the councillors in the past were in positions in their employment as lawyers or accountants where they were trustees on a whole pile of family trusts or company trusts."

Mr Freeman said it was because of that it started to get really messy as to what constituted a conflict of interest and what did not under the Local Authorities (Members' Interests) Act 1968.

He said Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) has advised that the council does not need a register, but councillors do have to formally declare any CoIs at the start of each meeting.

"From our point of view, small community elected members are involved in a number of organisations, committees and groups," he said.

"So each election it is decided whether to have a CoI register or not.

With the recent changes to the act, our audit committee are looking how we can have a risk registrar and a CoI registrar in a way that is useful," he said.