CEO says council-owned body needed expert advice on its subsidiary companies.
Innovation Waikato is defending spending twice as much on directors' fees as other part-owned council entities - despite lower returns.
Chief executive Derek Fairweather said the high fees - which contributed to the group's $475,730 deficit last year - were caused by tapping into important expert advice to get two new subsidiary companies off the ground.
At Hamilton City Council's finance and audit committee yesterday, councillor Ewan Wilson questioned why the group spent $233,245 on directors' fees in the year to last June when Waikato Regional Airport's fees were only $104,000 and Hamilton Riverview Hotel's were $85,596. Both companies returned much larger profits.
He was also concerned that a new board set up independently of the parent group Innovation Waikato to oversee its subsidiaries Beef Solutionz and Dairy Solutionz had been paid fees of $92,500 when only one of the entities (Dairy Solutionz) had traded.