Wintec probe whitewash — former dean

A former member of the Wintec executive team who sparked a confidential investigation into Wintec chief executive Mark Flowers has labelled the investigation a whitewash.

Former Wintec dean Merran Davis said she resigned from the institution in

2014 because she felt compromised over what she knew by allegations against Wintec and its leadership.

She spoke to the Waikato Times after Education Minister Chris Hipkins requested a briefing about Wintec from governance group the Tertiary Education Commission.

The briefing comes after Wintec spent more than $174,000 on legal fees to avoid answering questions in person from a Waikato Times reporter.

A two-year Waikato Times investigation into allegations made against Wintec boss Mark Flowers has been fraught with obstacles, including Flowers issuing not-for-publication answers to the reporter’s questions through his legal team at Bell Gully.

The allegations involve a confidential

2015 investigation into Flowers, questions about places frequented overseas while on taxpayer-funded business trips, and other serious allegations that were not investigated by the tertiary provider.

Davis, who is now executive dean at Unitec, said she first approached members of the Wintec Council with her concerns in May 2014.

‘‘I did unofficially try and raise it with council, a couple of council members, and they didn’t want to know about it,’’ she said.

After she left the role at Wintec, Davis asked the Tertiary Education Commission to investigate.

It, in turn, asked the Wintec Council to conduct the probe.

Wintec Council hired an Auckland employment firm to conduct the investigation, which cleared Flowers of all wrongdoing, however Davis believes there were a number of flaws in the way it was conducted.

‘‘Not everyone was interviewed, there was no recording of the transcript, it was handwritten, even though [name withheld] and I were willing to sign affidavits that wasn’t taken on board, they said that it wasn’t a legal investigation.

‘‘I just believed it had been a whitewash, that they had set out to discredit myself and the other complainant.’’

Davis said she waited until after she had left her role before laying a complaint for a number of reasons and wasn’t seeking a payout.

‘‘I was scared of the impact it would have on my career in Hamilton, being a small place, but I also felt that I was at risk as a member of the executive if I knew that there were unethical things going on and I did nothing about it.

‘‘That came out as part of the Pike River Mine findings, where people knew about the issues but didn’t do anything about it.’’

Former Wintec chairman from 2002 to 2012 Gordon Chesterman said he was surprised by Davis’ claims.

‘‘Merran Davis is someone that I have a lot of time for – she did a great job in handling the dean’s role,’’ he said.

‘‘And so when I learned that she had left Wintec, I was surprised.

‘‘But that was never discussed with me and so I was really surprised that she was behind the group that was intending to get Mark sacked.

‘‘I thought Mark treated other people that left Wintec over the years fairly and with respect.’’

But Chesterman said Flowers’ role required ensuring staff performed to a high level.

‘‘He would never discuss that with me, I would never know if someone’s left Wintec.’’

Davis defended her course of action. ‘‘It’s wrong of Gordon to insinuate that I’m behind a group that was going to the media, when in fact I went through all the channels I could,’’ she said.

‘‘I wasn’t looking for damages, I resigned of my own accord because I no longer felt safe with the risk of working there, given what I was aware of, what people were telling me and what I knew.’’

Chesterman said the council had only one employee and that was the chief executive and all employment issues were his responsibility.

‘‘The council’s view with the chief executive Mark Flowers was that it was his responsibility to fix Wintec on academic performance and on financial performance and it was his responsibility to do that.

‘‘And he did.

‘‘Council did not want, nor did it have, the responsibility for dealing with staff at that level.

‘‘So there were times that Mark might have reported to me that one of his management team was going, but I wasn’t involved with that.

‘‘I wanted a no-surprise relationship, which I got.’’

Chesterman described Flowers as a man of integrity, who had taken an under-performing institution to a global success.

‘‘Mark Flowers is an absolute gentleman, a man of his word, honest, integrity, personal ethics and – can I just say this as an aside – I have never heard Mark swear once to me, I’ve never heard him tell an off-colour joke, I’ve never heard him speak disrespectfully to a woman and, in all his time at Wintec, he has been supportive of a large number of very successful women.’’