Judith Collins National Party Health Spokeswoman

8 December 2004

HDHB blowout report damning

A damning report into a budget blowout at Hawke's Bay DHB highlights the gross waste and total lack of accountability in the health sector, says National's Health spokeswoman, Judith Collins.

The report was ordered after the cost of the board's Canning Road development ballooned from $7.8 million to $12 million. Ms Collins says if the development had been managed properly, that money could have been used for frontline services such as hip and knee replacements.

The report, released today, finds that: -

There was a lack of understanding of the risk and work involved with such a project. -

The rush to proceed and time pressures compromised the delivery of the project. -

The original plan was very light on detail. -

Cost estimates were wildly optimistic. -

Project governance was undertaken by individuals lacking the necessary skills to manage all aspects of a project of this nature. Ms Collins says the development was seriously dysfunctional and heads should roll at the DHB. "This is just one more example of Annette King and her cronies wasting valuable health dollars with a gross lack of accountability," she says.

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>