Call to reopen inquiry after buy slated
HAMILTON: Former Labour MP Sue Moroney has called on the Serious Fraud Office to reopen its investigation into the spending of Nigel Murray in light of an Auditorgeneral’s inquiry into the purchase of an online doctor app.
The former Waikato District Health Board chief executive, together with former board chairman Bob Simcock, has been criticised over the flawed procurement of HealthTap in 2015, in a report released yesterday by the Auditorgeneral.
It comes as Mr Simcock told The New Zealand Herald he was relaxed about his role in the saga, which cost taxpayers $26 million.
Ms Moroney said the Auditorgeneral’s report raised more questions than it answered.
The SmartHealth virtualcare app was an abysmal failure and was eventually canned by a new board after the project failed to reach targets by the end of a twoyear contract.
‘‘The rules and procedures ignored by Waikato DHB in its expensive virtualhealth experiment are there to protect taxpayers,’’ Ms Moroney said.
‘‘Those procedures weren’t followed and we still don’t know why the decisions were made in haste without due diligence or other providers being considered.
‘‘Given what we know about Nigel Murray’s history of unauthorised spending, the Serious Fraud Office needs to reopen its investigation into what went on at the Waikato DHB with his expenses and include the HealthTap debacle in that investigation.’’
Driven by Dr Murray and Mr Simcock, who both later quit amid Dr Murray’s expenses scandal, the procurement ‘‘fell well below the standards expected of a public entity’’, the inquiry said.
Fundamental aspects of good procurement were either missing, defective, or carried out too late in the process to be effective. These included:
A No formal planning before HealthTap was approached — which meant no business case and risk analysis, no identification of stakeholders and no evaluation of other options in the market.
A The DHB’s legal and procurement teams were not notified of the process and there was no evidence of governance oversight until after a contract was already drafted.
A No evidence that before approaching HealthTap any consideration was given to either specific government rules, including whether the DHB was permitted to approach a single provider, or the DHB’s own procurement policy.
Dr Murray was not at his Hamilton home when the Herald visited yesterday and his lawyer did not respond to questions.
Mr Simcock said he was ‘‘comfortable’’ with his role in the procurement and denied that it was rushed.
He first visited HealthTap at its Palo Alto base in California in November 2014. Dr Murray went in midMarch and by April they had a draft contract.
The board was presented with the virtualcare strategy in midJune and signed off in midJuly, though it is understood two board members voted against it.
Health Minister David Clark said mistakes had been made and it was important lessons were learned.
‘‘Clearly, procurement processes were not followed as they should have been and there are lessons there for the wider industry.’’ — The New Zealand Herald