Wintec probes top $500k
Wintec has spent at least $500,000 on lawyers, auditors and investigators probing everything from fishing trips with sex dolls to executive spending on overseas trips.
The latest confirmed spend was $150,000 for an audit into executive spending and restructure costs conducted by Audit New Zealand.
The tertiary provider has already spent at least $200,000 of taxpayer money on high powered legal advice from Auckland law firm Bell Gully as well as public relations support following a investigation into multiple allegations against its chief executive Mark Flowers.
Flowers remains on sick leave with no date set for his return. Material obtained under the Official Information Act show Wintec paid Audit New Zealand $149,467 to examine the tertiary institute’s spending.
The cost includes $9972 in disbursements.
Speaking in March, Wintec council chair Barry Harris estimated the costs of the initial stage of the audit work to be about $80,000.
The audit’s terms of reference include an examination of overseas spending by Flowers and his executives while on business trips for the tertiary provider.
Specifically, the probe examines expenses incurred by Flowers and his executive team in relation to travel to Hong Kong and China, from the beginning of 2009 to the end of 2017.
Auditors are also looking at travel expenses incurred by Flowers and his executives to locations other than Hong Kong and China, from the beginning of 2013 to the end of 2017.
In addition, the audit is examining redundancy and severance payments to former Wintec employees from the start of 2013 to the end of 2017.
Wintec has said the objective of the assurance work is to determine the number and amount paid over the five-year period, as well as establish what the basis was for the payments.
The Audit NZ work is separate to a probe into serious allegations against Flowers. The probe is a reinvestigation of claims first made in 2015 and is being conducted by Queen’s Counsel Simon Mount from Auckland. In May, an independent peer review of a 2015 confidential investigation into Flowers cost $30,000.
The review by Victoria Casey QC found the 2015 investigation was flawed.
Wintec has declined to detail the complaints and allegations being investigated but estimates the inquiry will cost taxpayers about $100,000.
Wintec expects the inquiry to be completed in late November. Earlier this year, the Waikato
Times reported Wintec had spent in excess of $200,000 on legal advice and a public relations firm.
Flowers has been on sick leave since mid-August.
Yesterday, Wintec communications manager Louise Belay confirmed Flowers was still on leave.
Asked if a date had been pencilled down for Flowers’ return, Belay said no further updates were available.
Flowers earned $420,000 to $429,000, according to the State Services Commission senior pay report 2016/17.
In September, the Waikato
Times revealed Wintec spent almost $29,000 on a high-level investigation into a bawdy fishing trip by Wintec staff.
The probe was launched after details emerged of a fishing trip by Wintec trade staff in April this year in which sex aids were handed out as spot prizes.
Wintec spent $10,138.80 investigating numerous allegations stemming from the trip, including claims staff initiated a mock execution of a sex doll.
Wintec management forked out a further $18,829.20 on disciplinary action in the wake of the investigation, which resulted in one staff member being fired.
It’s understood another staffer resigned.