Press release from Chair, Poutama Trust

Tuesday 23rd March

Mavis Mullins Chair of Poutama Trust wishes to correct inaccurate statements printed in the Dominion Post regarding Poutama Trust chief executive, Richard Jones. These statements were made on page 5 of the Dominion Post on Monday 22nd March 2010. Mrs Mullins hopes that that publication will acknowledge they got things wrong.

The article stated that Mr Jones was a Tekau Plus board member, a consultant to Tekau Plus and that he received director fees of $800 per meeting and consultancy fees of $250 per hour.

Mr Jones is a board member, however he is not a consultant to Tekau Plus neither is he a director of Tekau Plus, nor does he receive a director’s fee.

The facts are that Mr Jones works fulltime as the chief executive of Poutama Trust and has done so for the last 15 years. From time to time the skill set that Mr Jones has acquired in his work to advance Maori businesses, is called on by various organisations to assist them.

In these instances the Poutama Trust (not Mr Jones “consultant”) invoices these organisations for reimbursement of the time Mr Jones spends working on their projects. This is not an uncommon practise, especially given the fact that the Poutama Trust is a charitable organisation. In these instances too, it is the Poutama Trust, not Mr Jones, who receives any reimbursements.

“The implication that Mr Jones has benefitted personally from these payments is completely false, and if asked I would be happy to release all the paperwork relating to these transactions” said Mrs Mullins.

“Now that the Dominion Post has been made aware of these circumstances, they should put right the damage that has been done to Mr Jones, his whanau and the Poutama Trust with a correction” Mrs Mullins said.

ends

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