KEY POINTS:
Hawke's Bay District Health Board chairman Kevin Atkinson is expected today to ask the review team carrying out a probe into a conflicts of interest row involving a fellow board member to also examine the role of the board's executive team in the controversial affair.
The affair blew
up after a whistleblower intercepted emails between board member Peter Hausmann - whose company was preferred provider for a community service tender - and board managers.
But the DHB's chief executive, Chris Clarke, has since pledged he will attest to his confidence in, and integrity of the staff, in the process.
The affair is much more complex than has been portrayed to date.
Healthcare of New Zealand Ltd's Peter Hausmann will be the first to give testimony to the review team now headed by MidCentral District Health Board chairman Ian Little. Atkinson and David Ritchie, who chairs the board's audit committee, will be interviewed tonight.
News reports have suggested the negotiating process for a $50 million contract to develop community health service in Hawke's Bay was jettisoned early last year after a whistleblower drew Atkinson's attention to emails between Hausmann and DHB managers, which allegedly cut across assurances the Healthcare NZ managing director had given to the board that he would not be involved in discussions on the tender process.
But documents contained in the massive dump of material which had been originally sought by National under the Official Information Act raise new questions. What was under discussion was not a simple out-sourcing contract to provide community services but a joint-venture operation between the board and Healthcare NZ which would require both sides to make a show-and-tell about their respective operations if the venture was to proceed.
A document detailing terms of reference for a feasibility study for developing a strategic partnership for integrated community services sparked the whistleblower's interest. It showed the preferred joint-venture structure would be defined as part of the business case and feasibility study; the respective boards would then assess the merits of the preferred approach.
Atkinson and Ritchie argue this went further than the board's approval for terms of reference for a due diligence study.
But Healthcare NZ will argue wires have been crossed. Where the going will be sticky for Hausmann is over another set of emails that National disclosed in Parliament on Thursday which indicate DHB chief executive Chris Clarke had asked for a copy of a request for proposal for community services to be sent to Hausmann on May 10, 2005 before his appointment to the DHB board.
Healthcare NZ's board, which is chaired by Doug Catley and includes Ken Douglas and Peter Cottier, is angry at Atkinson's attitude to Hausmann, which they believe is personal. They are also incensed at allegations dished against their chief operating officer Ray Lind, previously at the DHB, who is alleged by the whistleblower to have tried to pressure her over her discoveries. Lind is married to former Health Minister Annette King who appointed Hausmann to the DHB in a fast-track process without detailed consultations with Atkinson.
Clarke is also incensed at the allegations against Lind and has written to him expressing his distaste at the unwarranted accusations and innuendo made through the media about "your conduct in relation to the whistleblower".
Clarke plans to address the issues with the review team tomorrow.