By Audrey Young
political reporter
The deal struck to recover $340,000 in unlawful payments to two former Tourism Board members will include a statement intended to clear their names.
It is expected to say that former chairman Bryan Mogridge and former deputy Michael Wall did not knowingly accept unlawful severance payments. The deal is expected to be announced today.
The Auditor-General, David Macdonald, said the same thing in his inquiry, which found that payments made to the men when they resigned were given without proper authority.
It has also been said on many occasions by the Prime Minister, Jenny Shipley, and the Minister of Tourism, Lockwood Smith. But the pair want it stated again.
Under the deal, it is believed the two will return the $340,000 - $200,000 from Mr Mogridge and $140,000 from Mr Wall - in return for smaller but properly authorised payments which would include recompense for legal costs.
It was suggested yesterday that the new payments would
total $200,000 tax-free, of which $30,000 would be for legal costs.
From the remaining $170,000, Mr Mogridge would get $100,000 and Mr Wall, $70,000. Meanwhile, Dr Smith yesterday revealed that the $340,000 was part of $1.4 million in redundancy and severance payments made by the board in the past year to 23 individuals.
The biggest is likely to have been the $579,424 gross paid to former chief executive Paul Winter. Dr Smith also revealed that the board paid Ernst & Young $296,732 to implement changes recommended in a review of the board's structure.
The review was conducted by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, at a cost of $31,878. The spending details were released in response to parliamentary questions from Labour's state services spokesman, Trevor Mallard.
The figures also showed that in the past year, the board paid $191,088 to Russell McVeagh in legal fees for work related to the Audit Office inquiry. And it paid $176,075 to the public relations firm Busby Ramshaw Grice, including $65,882 for advice on the Audit Office inquiry.
