Chai Chuah

Originally from Malaysia, he came to New Zealand to study and has spent decades working in the health sector. After heading the finance team at the Canterbury District Health Board, he left in 2002 to become chief executive of the Hutt Valley District Health Board. He was appointed to head the National Health Board in 2010, and stepped up to be the acting director-general of the Ministry of Health in 2013. The recruitment process was shelved for months, which State Services Commissioner Iain Rennie said was partly because of last year’s election. Shortly after it restarted the commission began a second investigation into Chuah.

The commission’s statement says Chuah simply did not notice that the allowances had continued. Eventually, after being alerted to the error, he struck an agreement to repay the allowances.

Nine months after O’Callaghan was appointed as the new CDHB chief executive she questioned why the pair were still being paid their acting salaries.

Some time later O’Callaghan gave ‘‘retrospective approval’’ for the higher salaries ‘‘in recognition of additional duties’’ without giving details.

According to the SSC, approval for the added payments was given for ‘‘good reason’’ but it did not elaborate.

O’Callaghan, who now works in the British National Health Service, said this month that she could not recall the events.

Bradley, the former chairman, said his recollection was that the matter was dealt with as a ‘‘management issue’’, confirming the SSC had contacted him about the matter.

Rennie released a lengthy statement pointing to a failure of best practice ‘‘in both process and communication’’ and that ‘‘Mr Chuah