Wintec chief goes under cloud
Former Wintec chief executive Mark Flowers will not receive a golden handshake when he exits the polytech this week.
Flowers, who announced his retirement in November, will not receive a settlement of any kind, according to Wintec chairman Barry Harris.
Flowers, credited with turning around a failing Wintec in his 16-year tenure, leaves the role under a dark cloud.
Two investigations – one into his spending on business trips in Asia and another into his behaviour – revealed shoddy record keeping and unbridled spending while the other uncovered a trove of text messages between the chief and a junior female staffer.
The investigation found Flowers in conflict over the matter and a lack of process for a separate complainant.
Harris said Flowers will not be remunerated after March 1 – his final day as chief executive.
Flowers has been on sick leave since August 2018 while the two investigation were under way.
The Simon Mount QC investigation into the behaviour of the chief executive upheld a complaint of a conflict of interest for Flowers pertaining to a particular employee.
Stuff revealed earlier this week that the conflict involved a junior female staffer and thousands of messages between the two. The conflict arose because Flowers, in his 60s at the time, had influence over her recruitment, management and promotion despite her being a close personal friend.
It also found a serious complaint, understood to be of a sexual nature, was not adequately dealt with by Wintec.
A damning Audit NZ report released at the same time as the Mount report found Wintec was unable to provide an account of how it spent public money.
Auditors highlighted inadequate accounts of spending during trips to Hong Kong and China, staff signing off expenses written in Chinese, and limited evidence of business cases for trip costs. ‘‘As a public entity, this is unacceptable,’’ the report found.
In some cases, Wintec executives approved their own expenses.
Harris said Flowers had not and would not receive a severance package.
‘‘Mark finishes at the end of this month. He has been on sick leave and, no, there is no remuneration past that.’’
Harris said a farewell for Flowers was still being organised.
Asked whether the taxpayer would be footing the bill, Harris wasn’t sure.
‘‘I can’t answer that question until I understand how that farewell will be organised,’’ he said.
Flowers had three more years remaining on his contract at the tertiary provider.
He will not be paid out the remainder of his contract.
Auditors highlighted inadequate accounts of spending during trips to Hong Kong and China, staff signing off expenses written in Chinese, and limited evidence of business cases for trip costs.