Rt Hon Winston Peters
New Zealand First Leader

7 February 2013

Mainzeal Directors Dodging Their Responsibilities

New Zealand First says the directors who resigned from Mainzeal on Tuesday are hiding behind the law so they don’t have to explain their part in the company’s liquidation.

Rt Hon Winston Peters says it appears the former directors will not be held accountable for the damage they caused given the current laws, and they probably never will.

“It is one more example that the laws in this country are written to protect directors, not the investors and workers.”

Mr Peters says the liquidation of the country’s third largest construction company also begs the question of how the chairperson of the Financial Services Council also happened to be the person who was the independent chairperson of Mainzeal.

“What happened here is a man called Yan made appointments based on political decisions instead of on commercial realities.

“You have to look at who Mr Yan appointed to these well-paying directorships.

“But you also have to consider the fact that Mr Yan paid himself more than $1 million a year despite the company having equity of only $68 million,” says Mr Peters.

ENDS

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Gordon Campbell: On Failures Of Care For Those With Mental Disabilities

Hard to imagine a more disturbing insight into the treatment of the vulnerable than the Health Ministry report on Te Roopu Taurima o Manukau. The Ministry has found that the country’s only kaupapa Maori intellectual disability residential care provider has been “seriously dysfunctional.”

The ministry says the business has failed to recruit and retain quality staff – and says the kaimahi (caregivers) that have been employed are seriously unsuitable for the job, lacking basic knowledge. But Te Roopu Taurima o Manukau doesn’t get all the blame. The report says there’s a significant gap under disability laws to ensure there’s oversight by qualified clinical professionals. More>>