DHB decision disgraceful says iwi elder

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Capital & Coast District Health Board has been criticised by a Kapiti kaumatua for failing to recover hundreds of thousands of dollars earmarked for health but spent on farming and investments.

Kamiria Mullen, a sister of Danny Mullen, former deputy chairman of Te Runanga o Te Ati Awa ki Whakarongotai, said the health board's decision was disgraceful.

"They are sending a message to Maori that you can [use funds for other purposes] and get away with it. They [the health board] know the money was used wrongly," Ms Mullen said yesterday.

On Wednesday the board put out a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers that said $276,000 worth of surplus health dollars from the runanga's health arm, Hora Te Pai, was invested in a bank and farming in Northland.

In earlier reports the board said $176,000 of money earmarked for health had gone into a failed cafe and craft business and "an advance" of $140,000 was made from Hora Te Pai's accounts to the runanga.

On the basis of the PricewaterhouseCoopers report, the board revised its figure of nearly $600,000 of money meant for health going into other accounts or failed ventures to $416,000 and said just over half had been repaid.

Board planning and funding director Sandra Williams said that, after taking legal advice, the board decided it would not try to retrieve the remaining $203,000 because it believed Hora Te Pai performed to contract.

Ms Williams described the report as an audit but the report's authors said they had not "conducted any form of audit" and had "no opinion on the reliability, accuracy or completeness of the information" they relied on.

She declined to comment further yesterday.

Ms Mullen said it was ridiculous for the board to say its contracts with Hora Te Pai were concluded satisfactorily considering an earlier report from the board said the runanga repeatedly failed to meet its obligations and demanded all the money be returned.

"They [the health board] are covering their butts here. They simply didn't bother to monitor what they gave that money for," she said.

She had written to all MPs demanding action because otherwise the message to Maori was that they could use taxpayer money for whatever they liked and in her opinion "get away with it". She said her brother and other members of the iwi had, in her view, behaved like an old boys' network in how they spent money meant to help "our people".

"As a kaumatua I am angry with what my brother [and others] has done."

She said other iwi were facing similar issues and it was time to stop people using money meant to "uplift our people" for the wrong purposes. "Our iwi is standing up and saying: `This is wrong.'

"But this message from the DHB is giving all government departments an out."

A new board had since been appointed to represent the runanga but it was having difficulty getting access to all the previous board's bank accounts, she said.

Mr Mullen could not be con-tacted.

- © Fairfax NZ News