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The man at the centre of a conflict-of-interest wrangle at the Hawkes Bay District Health Board has gone public with a strong defence of his actions, and suggesting a personal clash may be behind the stoush.
Peter Hausmann, managing director of Healthcare of New Zealand, claimed yesterday that
since his appointment to the board in 2005 he had been subjected to "innuendo, attacks behind closed doors and continued efforts to discredit me".
He said he had acted with integrity at all times, and had nothing to hide.
Mr Hausmann singled out chairman Kevin Atkinson as having spent "an enormous amount of money, time and effort on argument and one-sided inconclusive investigations".
Mr Hausmann's involvement with the board and its contracting processes is to be reviewed by order of Health Minister Pete Hodgson.
The review follows concerns about a potential conflict of interest and the treatment of a whistleblower who drew attention to it.
The controversy relates to the selection of Mr Hausmann's company as the preferred bidder for a contract worth up to $50 million. The whistleblower was disturbed that, despite Mr Hausmann's saying he wouldn't be involved in the tender process, an email suggested he knew something of the terms of reference being drawn up between the board and his company.
The process was terminated after the board sought legal advice.
The review team has not been named, but National Party deputy leader Bill English yesterday called for the Auditor-General to do it because that would be more independent.
He also suggested it would prove difficult to get someone to lead the review because Mr Hodgson and Prime Minister Helen Clark had already said the process was unlikely to find anything wrong - putting the reviewer in an awkward position.
Mr Atkinson yesterday expressed confidence the board's actions were appropriate in the tender process.
Asked if his comment referred to the board including Mr Hausmann, Mr Atkinson said it did not because Mr Hausmann had a conflict of interest and had not taken part in certain meetings because of it.
"The board's decisions and actions all the way through this have been supported with legal advice continuously," Mr Atkinson said.
He rejected Mr Hausmann's suggestion there was a personal issue between them.
"There is no personality issue at all - this is an issue about transparency, honesty and integrity and nothing to do with personalities," he said. "Not a single board member has a different view than what I expressed."
He said it would be inappropriate to talk about whether he had any concerns about how management had dealt with the issue.
The treatment of the whistleblower, who later lost her job, is also set to come under the spotlight during the upcoming review.
The woman sought protection under the Protected Disclosures Act.
The Office of the Ombudsmen can become involved in whistleblower investigations if it wants to, but yesterday had not received a complaint.
