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A Hamilton company director has been caught using 35 falsified invoices over a 17-month period to overcharge the Waikato District Health Board by more than $68,000, and the board is warning that some of its other suppliers are now under the microscope.
In the Hamilton District Court yesterday Tamahere woman Maryanne Joyce Griffin, 47, pleaded guilty to charges of altering a document with intent to defraud and using an altered document. Both charges carry a maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment, and Griffin will come up for sentencing on September 24.
She is a director of Glenview Electrical Ltd, one of three electrical suppliers contracted to carry out work for the DHB.
Waikato DHB said it had cancelled its contract with the company after recovering $165,500 from it.
This included overpayments for materials and services totalling about $68,400, plus costs of the investigation.
Glenview Electrical achieved a margin of up to 95 per cent on some items, as opposed to the contracted margin of 15 per cent.
Health services general manager Jan Adams said the offending was picked up by the organisation's internal audit team in August last year, when the company began invoicing for electrical services at a higher hourly rate than that specified in its contract.
The DHB requested the 11 invoices in question at the time be cancelled and new ones submitted.
However, when the new ones came in the amounts charged were the same. This was because the number of hours were changed and/or additional charges were made for the same materials.
"This was a fraudulent use of public money and cannot be tolerated," Ms Adams said yesterday.
"This conviction puts all our suppliers on notice that we are vigilant when it comes to spending taxpayers' money appropriately and we will take action where we think it's necessary."
The DHB has an annual budget of $750 million, and about $200 million of that is spent on goods and services provided by more than 2000 suppliers.
Ms Adams warned that internal auditors had identified new cases where other suppliers had overcharged.
