$250,000 spent on workshops
The health boss who spent $31,000 attending a nine-day course at a Silicon Valley university flew people associated with that educator back to New Zealand as part of a quarter million dollar spend on technology workshops.
Director-general of Health Chai Chuah, who resigned in December, spent just over a week at Singularity University in the United States last year. The California think tank start-up was co-founded by futurist Ray Kurzweil.
In November and December Chuah then oversaw the spending of more than $230,000 on importing six facilitators from the United States to hold six workshops for Ministry of Health staff and others in the health sector. Two were connected to Singularity.
The total cost for the six facilitators and venue hire, including travel, accommodation and other expenses, was $233,258.
The information was not publicly available and was requested from the ministry after Stuff was contacted anonymously about the expense.
Chuah resigned on December 4 and will leave the top role this month following a string of highprofile blunders, including the misallocation of $38 million in new Budget funding to district health boards last year and an $18m accounting error relating to the refurbishment of a new ministry head office in 2016.
Jill Bond, executive director at the office of the director-general, said the workshops had value.
‘‘The contractors and Innosight are internationally recognised experts, published in the field of exponential change (the impact of rapid technological change on industry) and offering strategies and frameworks which can assist in the implementation of the New Zealand health strategy.
‘‘The ministry did not organise any activities or travel for the facilitators other than attending the conference.
‘‘A meeting was organised with one other Government agency with the Innosight employees at no extra cost.’’
Two of the facilitators were ‘‘affiliated’’ with Singularity, Bond said, but were ‘‘acting in their private capacity’’.
The other four were from Innosight, a management consulting firm Massachussetts.
The three staff workshops were attended by 465 people and the three health sector workshops by 109 people. Four of the workshops were run by the Singularityaffiliated facilitators and the other two by the four Innosight employees.
All six workshops were run in Wellington over six days.
Bond said the workshops focused on the topics of mental health, aged residential care and primary care.
‘‘The New Zealand health system is rapidly changing, with emerging technologies at the forefront,’’ she said.
‘‘These workshops allowed sector leaders to gain a deeper insight into what this change means and how they can incorporate it into their business.
‘‘The aim of these workshops was to create a culture of learning and shared understanding for key sector partners and staff in leadership roles and roles of influence.’’
Bond said the workshops were based on the concepts of ‘‘disruptive innovation’’ in a ‘‘technologyfocused world’’.
‘‘The sessions were targeted to help leaders understand the nature of changes and to see how technologies can positively impact their ability to support the health of all New Zealanders.’’
The ministry paid for the workshop – attendees had to pay for their own travel and accommodation. At Singularity, Chuah attended the ‘‘executive programme’’, which – according to the university – helped ‘‘futureoriented senior influencers’’ to ‘‘think exponentially’’. based in