Shane Reti - Health

4 September 2018

Health Minister David Clark must take responsibility after the release of a damning report by AuditNZ, National’s Associate Health spokesperson Dr Shane Reti says.

“The report shows the Ministry of Health’s didn’t properly manage conflicts of interest when it reviewed the failing $90 million National Oracle IT Solution.

“The Health Minister’s shambolic handling of the National Oracle IT Solution (NOS) calls into question his leadership and his credibility.

“David Clark has yet to take responsibility for the fact the review he commissioned and then subsequently tried to bury showed there is ’little evidence’ conflicts of interest were considered, and management of the risk of conflicts of interest in the initial report was ‘wholly inadequate’.

“This comes from the Office of the Auditor General’s report into conflicts of interest that Deloitte told the minister 'our preference is that this information is not made public’.

“The report contains a battery of significant failings including:

There is little evidence that the Ministry fully considered the conflict of interest
The conflict of interest was poorly managed by the Ministry
Communications around the conflict were wholly inadequate
The perception by others Deloitte favoured its own interests at the very least represented a perception of conflict of interest

“The AuditNZ report concludes with five areas where the engagement of Deloitte did not demonstrate good practice and a raft of recommendations. It now comes as no surprise that David Clark played political games and tried to avoid releasing the AuditNZ report.

“David Clark must account for this incompetence, misuse of $150,000 of taxpayer money and subsequent attempt to hide the truth.

“It is also important to note that the $150,000 is just for the conflicted Deloitte report and not the cost of the AuditNZ review of the conflicted Deloitte report – which David Clark is refusing to reveal.

“David Clark is clearly not up to the task. We support the objectives of the National Oracle Solution and this crucial review which informs how many millions Cabinet will need to inject into the Oracle project now needs to be redone, and overseen by someone other than the Health Minister.”

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