Minister asks Maori TV for facts on Davy

By LOUISA CLEAVE and FRANCESCA MOLD

The Government has asked the Maori Television Service for a report on the background of its chief executive, John Davy, after a Herald inquiry.

The Canadian businessman was appointed last month, but inquiries into his background have raised questions about his positions and qualifications.

Finance Minister Michael Cullen has also instructed Treasury officials to make inquiries about Mr Davy's credentials.

Mr Davy has been asked by the Maori Television Service board to supply further references and documentation about his background.

The board used Wellington recruitment agency Millennium People to find its chief executive.

The Herald has also learned that the company Mr Davy worked for before getting the job with Maori television went under late last year, owing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The company, Intercom3000, was put into liquidation last week.

Maori Television Service board member Craig Soper said last night that he had never heard of Intercom3000.

Mr Davy was appointed chief executive and chief financial officer of Intercom3000 last June. The company, which was already in financial difficulty, went under three months later.

The Herald has also learned:

* Registrars at the University of Denver and Colorado University can find no record of a graduate by the name of John Davy.

He said in a biography provided to the media that he held an MBA from Denver University.

* Mr Davy is not known to the BC Securities Commission in Vancouver, although his biography says he is a member and adviser to it.

* Searches of public databases can find no record of two books that Mr Davy said he had written, The Platinum Formula and The Art of Record Producing. The Herald searched Oxford's Bodleian Library, the United States Library of Congress and online bookstore Amazon.

Mr Davy told the Herald on Wednesday night that the books had been printed by his own publishing company.

"These things were way back," he said. "Some of them are printed back in 1977. Some in 1984.

"And they're through my publishing company, which again I will bring to Craig's [board member Craig Soper's] attention in answering his questions to me."

Last night, reached at his Kohimarama home, Mr Davy said the board had been provided with additional information about his references.

He also said the board was "fully aware" of Intercom3000.

Mr Davy said the board would be making a statement today about the issue.

Asked if he had any copies of his academic qualifications, he said: "You'll have to wait till tomorrow."

Mr Davy, who was working on his laptop computer when the Herald arrived, said: "The board has been provided with additional information. You will hear about it tomorrow."

National MP Murray McCully said he had been contacted in the past by a couple of people in the television industry with questions about Mr Davy's qualifications and experience, but was not aware of the extent of the concerns until yesterday.

If it was proved that Mr Davy did not have the qualifications he had claimed, the board members who appointed him should be held accountable, said Mr McCully.

"If it transpires there is any doubt about his credentials, heads should roll."

National's broadcasting spokeswoman, Katherine Rich, said every aspect of Mr Davy's resume needed to be thoroughly checked to ensure the questions raised about his qualifications and experience were answered.

"Either it stacks up or it doesn't," she said.

Intercom3000 director Eric Anderton is living in Costa Rica and his family in Auckland would not discuss the business yesterday.

Mr Davy would not name the company at the time of his appointment last month.

He told the Herald that he was bound by a confidentiality agreement, and added that it did not matter because the company had moved to Costa Rica.

But in an email last September, Mr Davy said money that was coming from Costa Rica "does not relate to Intercom3000".

"No disposition of Intercom3000 has been made yet. When the time comes you will be so advised," he said.

He was responding to questions from Intercom3000's former landlord, Martin van Zonneveld.

Mr van Zonneveld says he is owed $94,000 for rent on an office in Eden Terrace, Auckland.

When Intercom3000 folded last August, the office was cleared out in the middle of the night and furniture belonging to the premises was removed, said Mr van Zonneveld.

He approached Mr Davy, who then lived in Birkenhead, about the rent and furniture and found some of the furniture in the house.

"We sat around the board table in his dining room. He'd sold the [original] chairs," he said.

"[Mr Davy] was very forthcoming. "I asked him what the state of Intercom3000 was and he told me they had debts of $640,000."

Intercom3000 was a multi-level marketing company that provided internet access and online services.

A man who worked for the company last April and May said he had still not been paid.

The man, who did not want to be named, said he had dealings with Mr Davy and believed he genuinely wanted to help pay creditors.

"However, this genuineness was hampered by the lack of funds to do so, and marred by broken promises to make payments on specified dates," he said.

A member of the Maori Television Service board said Millennium People was responsible for all background checks on candidates for the chief executive position.

Mr Davy's appointment was controversial at the beginning because he had no Maori language skills and no background in running a television channel.

The Government's decision to set up a new Maori television station was subject to intense scrutiny because of the high-profile, messy collapse of the Aotearoa Television network in 1997.

The decision to shut down Aotearoa Television followed claims of overspending and financial mismanagement.

Former MP Tukoroirangi Morgan, a director of the television station, was immortalised in the scandal for spending $89 of the network's money on a pair of underpants.

But a report by the Serious Fraud Office cleared him of any impropriety.

- Additional reporting by Ainsley Thomson and Jo-Marie Brown