Trust squandered $150k earmarked for Maori health

NZ First’s deputy leader, Ron Mark, was patron of a trust that squandered $150,000 of taxpayer money for mental health services it could not provide, a Fairfax investigation has found.

Mark’s daughter, Melanie Mark-Shadbolt, was the executive director of Canterbury’s Te Awa O Te Ora Trust during a Ministry of Health audit that found serious problems.

Those problems included a ‘‘dysfunctional’’ board, employment issues including nine personal grievance claims by staff, the sale of a trust car for $250 to a family member, and a failure to provide some services for which it had been paid.

Auditors also found a trust credit card was used to pay for ‘‘ferry and air travel’’ on behalf of Mark.

At the time of the audit, in January 2015, he owed the trust $1097. But Mark and MarkShadbolt claim the trust’s breakdown was due to a toxic chairwoman, who auditors said engaged in ‘‘intimidation and bullying’’ of staff members and created a culture of fear.

This week, Mark said his role of patron was ‘‘non-operational’’.

He had resigned ‘‘due to concerns I had as to how the trust was operating, based on comments by senior managers who have subsequently resigned’’, he said.

The trust’s credit card payment for Mark’s travel to and from Christchurch was ‘‘an administrative error’’ made by a junior member of staff, he said.

‘‘As soon as I was alerted to the error, I repaid the trust for the cost of the travel in full.’’

The Christchurch-based trust provided day activities and community support for 120 Maori mental health patients. It was the only service to operate within a kaupapa Maori framework.

It was funded $1.5 million by the Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) and $220,000 by the Ministry of Health during the audit period, from July 2012 to January 2015.

Auditors found that from October 2013 the trust did not have enough staff to provide all the services for which it was contracted. It owed $109,640 to the DHB for mental health community support services and $42,500 to the ministry for the Like Minds Like Mine service.

Mark, Mark-Shadbolt, and two other trust members resigned four days before the end of the audit period.

Asked if he could have stepped in to help, given the wellbeing of about 120 mental health patients was at stake, Mark said: ‘‘As patron, I had no involvement in the trust’s day-to-day operational matters.’’

By the time Mark resigned, nine of the 11 trust staff members had taken personal grievance claims against the trust.

Those related to concerns with trust chairwoman Angelia Ria.

The CDHB said it did not have any contracts with the trust at present. – Fairfax NZ