Maori TV board disgruntled over pay early on

By LOUISA CLEAVE

Directors on the Maori Television Service board were dissatisfied with their pay packets and talked about asking for more money at their second meeting.

Pay levels had been set at $36,000 a year for the chairman and $18,000 for directors, but they did not believe the money represented the initial workload and frequency of meetings.

Cabinet approved an extra payment of $84,000 in March and also authorised Te Puni Kokiri to enter into contracts with individual directors for other board work, including the transmission platform, broadcasting facilities and/or programme content.

The contracts would be for no more than 20 days' work per director with a daily rate of no more than $720 excluding GST.

The State Services Commission was asked in February to consider increasing the extra funding for directors to $200,000 but baulked at the proposal.

The MTS board decided to allocate the $84,000 based on extra meetings. Chairman Derek Fox was to receive $34,758 for 12 extra attendances, or $2896 per attendance. The next highest payments were going to Craig Soper, $14,482, and Joanna Paul, $11,586.

A request for "sitting fees" for directors who sat on the MTS Programming Advisory Panel was refused.

Full coverage: Maori TV