KEY POINTS:
The tragic death of Folole Muliaga came as a bombshell to Mighty River Power's board on Wednesday morning.
Some of the directors who had assembled for their normal meeting in Auckland did not know their company was already in the middle of an enormous personal and public relations disaster.
Others - who had heard the news on National Radio - were alarmed at the story that a Mangere woman on an oxygen machine died just hours after Mercury Energy cut power to her home. Mercury Energy is the Auckland-based retail arm of power generator Mighty River Power.
If directors were not aware of possible ramifications of Muliaga's death, a later Radio NZ report which probed where legal liability might lie, would have concentrated minds.
The state-owned enterprise is owned by the Government, which sets the rules for its operation in negotiation with the directors (and management). It has to be said that the rules are relatively blurred.
While the statement of corporate intent and other statements in the company's annual reports talk about social responsibility as one of the drivers of company performance, this has not been underpinned by a ministerial direction to take account of the risk factors to lower-income or ill people, which obviously applied in this case.
After several days of high-level politicking, which included a savage response by Prime Minister Helen Clark, the Mighty River directors will be treading very carefully indeed.
Two matters are not contested.
The first is the dreadful public response by Mighty River Power CEO Doug Heffernan and Mercury Energy general manager James Moulder to Muliaga's death.
Moulder countered as best as he could at 7.09am on Wednesday when he first got the call from Morning Report's Sean Plunkett. He had been up all night, but Mercury could not contact the grieving family directly to find out what happened or reconnect their power as their phone had apparently also been cut off.
Moulder was also facing difficulties trying to get a clear steer from contractor Vircom-EMS on what happened when Vircom's electrician turned up to cut off the power in accordance with Mercury's directions.
Listening back to the Wednesday Radio NZ reports, Mercury took a very black-and-white view of the circumstances. A customer who had health difficulties had to provide doctor's evidence of their circumstances if they wanted some leniency with payments. There was little apparent room for Vircom's contractor to exercise discretion.
It also has to be said that those first radio reports were way off-beam with their suggestions that Muliaga was on a life-support machine. Counties Manukau health authorities later confirmed her oxygen machine did not fall into that category.
Heffernan later threw fat on the fire by trying to defend Mercury's line that the company needed to keep tight control over customers who were falling behind with payments.
Mighty River Power's directors some of whom were already concerned need to ask why Heffernan and Moulder went on television on Wednesday night trying to defend a difficult-to-maintain position. This was a PR war that could not be won, particularly once the Prime Minister got involved.
The position of Mighty River Power chairman Carole Durbin also needs to be probed: Why did she not apply the choke chain to executives?
The other issue that will concentrate directors' minds is the inflexible nature of the rules concerning disconnection notices.
They also have reason to ask just why the Muliagas' power was cut when they had obviously made progress on reducing their debt.
The key issue is the pressure put on contractor Vircom-EMS.
It would be wrong to suggest Vircom has been tasked with cutting off Mercury's customers because the bigger player does not want to confront grumpy Aucklanders itself. Vircom-EMS carries out disconnection services for several power retailers and is 80 per cent owned by MainPower (South Island).
My inquiries suggest the Vircom electrician who cut off the Muliagas' power is under extraordinary emotional pressure. He is said not to be some "heartless Palagi".
The Mighty River directors are on the backfoot but some are worried about being painted as heartless monsters by the Prime Minister.
There are a lot of unanswered questions - we do not know why a person who was dependent on oxygen was not still in hospital in the first place. On the surface, it may look like Mighty River Power and its contractors are to blame, but we would be doing them a disservice if we passed judgment without more investigation into what happened and where the real blame should lie.
