KEY POINTS:
A stunned Hawkes Bay District Health Board is seeking legal advice over whether it has to pay a half-million-dollar legal bill sent to it by board member Peter Hausmann.
Mr Hausmann asked the Government several months ago to launch an inquiry into an alleged conflict of interest involving him and a multimillion-dollar health contract to be awarded by the board.
The inquiry is yet to be completed but Mr Hausmann this week sent a bill for $511,759.55 to the health board asking it to pay for his legal services stemming from the inquiry. It is understood the arrival of the invoice has staggered other health board members, who had no idea he intended to charge his legal services back to the board.
The bill requested that the amount be paid by the end of next week.
A board member yesterday told the Weekend Herald that the amount billed by Mr Hausmann was more than six times the legal costs that the board itself had run up so far from the ongoing inquiry. It is now talking to its own lawyers to find out if it has any obligation to pay the money.
Mr Hausmann is the managing director of Healthcare of New Zealand, and he was appointed to the board in 2005 by then Health Minister Annette King.
His firm sought a contract that apparently could have been worth as much as $50 million, but a whistleblower became concerned that although Mr Hausmann said he would not be involved in the tender process, an intercepted email suggested he knew something of terms of reference being drawn up between the health board and his company.
The process was eventually terminated, and Mr Hausmann has strenuously denied any wrongdoing.
Mr Hausmann could not be reached for comment.
$511,759.55
* The average cost of an elective surgery procedure is $2500.
* The legal bill of $511,759.55 sent to Hawkes Bay District Health Board is the equivalent of 204.7 procedures.
