Davy tipped to be out of TV job today

By LOUISA CLEAVE

The controversial head of the Maori Television Service is expected to be out of a job today.

Well-placed sources have told the Herald that the board met yesterday in Auckland and received information that made John Davy's position as chief executive "untenable".

Mr Davy is under scrutiny because of questions raised by a Herald inquiry into his listed professional background and qualifications.

A Maori Television Service spokesman said last night that board chairman Derek Fox would make a statement today following yesterday's special meeting, which did not involve all directors.

The departure of Mr Davy would be a blow to the standing of Mr Fox and other directors who as late as Friday issued a statement backing the CEO's credentials and defending the board's "robust and correct" appointment processes and the standards demanded of the selection company.

Government concern over the controversy is acute, with Finance Minister Michael Cullen still waiting for a Treasury investigation he ordered last Thursday. The Coalition deliberately retained Government directors on the MTS to be able to deal with any issues that could put Maori TV at risk, following the Aotearoa Television fiasco of 1997.

The Herald's inquiry into Mr Davy's background first raised questions about his role as a member and adviser to the BC Securities Commission in Canada, his Master of Business Administration degree, and two books he is said to have written.

In a biographical sheet provided to the media, Mr Davy's "non-conflict directorships" - a term which implied they were not only real but current - included his being a "member and adviser to the BC Securities Commission".

A statement from the board, issued last Friday, said Mr Davy had provided details of "some highly confidential work he carried out for the British Columbia Securities Commission in 1986".

But a BC Securities Commission spokesman said he could not find a reference to a John Davy in the past 15 years, or in records back to the late 70s.

Another of Mr Davy's non-conflict directorships is said to be as a member and adviser of the Middle East Round Table for International Relations.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade staff familiar with the Middle East - including people who have worked there - have not heard of the organisation.

Mr Davy last night said from his Kohimarama home that the board had not decided anything yesterday.

"You have to leave the property now, you know the drill," he said.

Mr Davy was appointed by the board on March 14, chosen from a shortlist of six, including three Maori applicants.

The board hired Wellington recruitment agency Millennium People to find a chief executive.

The Maori Television Service is accountable to the Government and the Maori Electoral College.

Its seven-member board is a mixture of private and public interests. Three are appointed by the Crown and four by the electoral college of Maori organisations and language groups.

Hone Harawira, the head of the electoral college, Te Putahi Paho, said if Mr Davy's credentials did not stand scrutiny he would expect firm action to be taken by the board.

The board had "ultimate responsibility" for employing Mr Davy.

"I'm not calling for the head of Derek Fox or the other board members for an activity that I would not expect them to take care of," he said. "That's something you leave to your staff. Perhaps the advice given to them was not as clear as it should have been."

Mr Davy last week gave the board a copy of his MBA "from the Ashland School of Business at Denver State University".

Herald inquiries found Denver State University does not exist. The university name and the school on Mr Davy's degree certificate were found on an example of counterfeit credentials sold over the internet.

A bank manager and a lawyer in Whistler, a ski resort town 140km north of Vancouver, were yesterday interested to learn Mr Davy was living in New Zealand.

Mr Davy ran an accountancy business in Whistler for about five years from the early 1990s, they said.

John Nadeau, manager of the Whistler branch office of Canada's North Shore Credit Union, said he was interested in speaking to Mr Davy about an account he had with the NSCU. "We would love to talk to him about clearing up some business he left with us," he said.

The Herald also spoke to a Whistler barrister who had acted for a local businessman in retrieving his company accounts from Mr Davy.

The lawyer said Mr Davy was asked to surrender the accounts for an independent review by accountants following concerns about his client's tax returns.

His client subsequently paid "tens of thousands of dollars" in tax return penalties to the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency.

"The process was to recover the records and then retain an expert accountant to sort out [the accounting procedures] and demand a payment," he said. "My client was in the process of retiring and just did not want to incur the costs ... in legal fees. My client just wanted to minimise his losses."

Mr Davy is thought to have left Whistler in 1995 or 1996.

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