The letting of a $1.2 million health contract to the mother of a former Health Funding Authority worker is under investigation.
High Court orders prevent identification of the people involved.
The company formed to provide Maori health advocacy services under the contract has already received $300,000. Its assets have been frozen.
But in the High Court at Wellington on Thursday, Justice Durie lifted the four-week freeze on assets of the former authority worker.
It is alleged the woman signed the three-year contract for Maori health advocacy services days before leaving the authority late last year. The contract was with the woman's mother and a relative.
The woman then returned to her home area and became a director of a consultancy company that allegedly received $45,000 in fees from the company to whom the contract was effectively awarded.
Soon after, the former authority worker became a director and one-third shareholder of the company, though she has since resigned.
In April, the Ministry of Health told the company it would not receive more money until the contract was reviewed. Justice Durie said the ministry alleged the contract was "illegal and void for fraud."
The company has employed 11 people and has 160 clients. Justice Durie was told the ministry was making alternative arrangements for the clients.
In lifting the freeze on the woman's assets, Justice Durie said nothing suggested the covert accumulation of assets at the ministry's expense.
She left a $102,000 salary at the Health Funding Authority for $116,000 at the consultancy company, but the court was told she could soon lose her job.
- NZPA
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