Murray’s high pay got bosses’ nod
Chairman won approval to up new chief’s salary offer
The former Waikato health board chair needed permission to pay Dr Nigel Murray more than he had authority to approve, when he hired the chief executive in mid-2014.
A letter from Waikato District Health Board chairman Bob Simcock to then State Services Commissioner Iain Rennie dated June 8, 2014, sought Rennie’s permission to pay Murray more than SSC policy allowed for newly appointed chief executives.
Murray quit in October this year amid an expenses scandal. Simcock quit on November 28.
The figure and those of Murray’s salary at the time as CEO of Fraser Health Authority in Canada, as well as Simcock’s suggested starting point, are redacted in the letter released under the Official Information Act.
But 2014 media reports show Murray earned C$444,000 ($478,000) — then the highest paid health authority CEO in British Columbia.
Simcock wrote that he sought permission to hire Murray and give him a salary that was the mid-point of the range assessed for the role, an amount that required Rennie’s express permission.
Simcock wrote that the board had searched extensively for a CEO to replace Craig Climo including in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Britain and the United States.
“We received 28 formal applications and among those Dr Murray was clearly the stand-out candidate.”
Simcock said reports from people who worked with and for Murray in Canada, at Southland DHB where he was chief in 2007 and at Auckland
We received 28 formal applications and among those Dr Murray was clearly the stand-out candidate. Bob Simcock in his 2014 letter to the State Service Commissioner
DHB, where Murray was deputy chief executive before that, were glowing.
He wrote the letter two days after Murray was announced the front runner for the job, on June 6.
Murray reportedly wanted to return to New Zealand for family reasons — his elderly father who lives in the Waikato was apparently ill.
His resignation, also on June 6, came after a damning BC review showed Fraser Health Authority was the worst performing in Canada, in part due to budget shortfalls.
Its interim board chairman at the time, Wynne Powell, told the Herald this month that it took 12 months to turn Fraser Health around.
On June 12, 2014 the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, the union for senior doctors, warned the DHB that Murray was not suitable.
Executive director Ian Powell said the DHB appeared to be rushing into hiring someone who had a “polarising leadership style”.
The week Simcock wrote to Rennie, former Labour MP Sue Moroney gave the DHB chair a similar warning and said Simcock told her he would “keep an eye on Murray”.
On June 16, 2014, the SSC told Simcock it consented to appointing Murray chief executive.
The total salary was redacted but the SSC letter noted the “appointment at this level of remuneration may limit Dr Murray’s annual remuneration increases in the future”.
But Murray, who was reported in the Vancouver Sun in November 2008 as not being “in it for the money”, got a six-figure salary rise at Waikato DHB the next year.
The Herald reported last December that Murray’s total package went from between $440,000 to $450,000, to between $560,000 to $570,000 in the DHB’s 2015/16 annual report.
Waikato DHB spokeswoman Lydia Aydon said then the extra money was a mixture of performance pay, cashed-out annual leave and KiwiSaver contributions.
The article raised the ire of Simcock, who wrote a lengthy response published in the Herald defending Murray’s package.
An SSC investigation into Murray’s $218,000 expenses during his three years at Waikato DHB, along with Simcock’s oversight of the spending, is expected early next year. The Serious Fraud Office and the AuditorGeneral are also making inquiries.
The Otago Daily Times said Murray claimed credit in his resume for the Southland and Otago DHB merger, even though he wasn’t there when it went ahead in 2010.