KEY POINTS:
The Auditor-General will investigate how Auckland's health boards handle conflicts of interest, after the failures in managing one member's conflicts helped derail the $560 million regional laboratory contract.
In Parliament yesterday, National tried to inflict more pain on the Government over the fiasco.
Health Minister Pete Hodgson later announced that the Auditor-General had agreed to examine how conflicts of interest are dealt with at the Auckland, Waitemata and Counties Manukau district health boards.
On March 20, the High Court overturned the boards' eight-year contract with Labtests Auckland, partly because of the mishandling of the conflict of interest of pathologist Dr Tony Bierre when he was an Auckland board member.
Mr Hodgson said yesterday that following the boards' securing an 18-month interim contract with the current community laboratory provider, Diagnostic Medlab, he wanted to avoid a repeat of what had led to the Labtests deal being ruled invalid.
It is the second time the Auditor-General has been involved with the health boards in relation to the laboratory contract.
The boards commissioned the Auditor-General's Audit New Zealand business unit to check on the lab contract request-for-proposal and tender - which it did, declaring it knew of no "departures from good practice or outstanding probity issues".
Its terms of reference did not cover the period when Dr Bierre was an active board member.
Yesterday, National Party health spokesman Tony Ryall accused the Government of seeking the latest investigation "to protect its appointees involved in the lab-testing fiasco".
He noted it was the second audit of conflicts at the Auckland DHB - the first was in 2003."
Obviously changes are needed in the way conflicts are handled. The High Court said so."
In the House, Mr Ryall and his leader, John Key, pressed Mr Hodgson and Prime Minister Helen Clark over when they would deal with Auckland board chairman Wayne Brown and the deputy chairman of all three boards, Ross Keenan.
The Government says it wants to await the court appeal process before expressing whether it does or does not have confidence in the boards and their chairs. The parties have until April 19 to appeal.
Mr Key said: "Hasn't it dawned on the Prime Minister that by delaying any statement of confidence in the Auckland district health boards until after the appeal process has played out, she is practically inviting those directors to lodge an appeal in order to save their jobs for at least a year, if not more?"
"No," said Helen Clark, "nor do I intend to cut across appeal rights."
Mr Hodgson said the question of confidence or its absence was of limited value at present as the court judgment might be appealed and there was debate over whether it was new law.
