Please stay, Government asks Brown

By CATHERINE MASTERS and FRAN MOLD

Health heavyweight Wayne Brown has been asked to delay his resignation from the board of the Maori Television Service to see it through its "rough patch".

Mr Brown, chairman of the Auckland District Health Board, last week wrote to the Government saying he wanted to step down as an MTS director because of other commitments.

Yesterday, he told the Herald he expected to hear from Finance Minister Michael Cullen about the request for him to stay another month in the next 24 hours and that he was still thinking about it.

In other developments:

Dr Cullen called in Parliament for the Ernst and Young inquiry into MTS to be expanded to clarify who was responsible for running security and credit checks on management.

The minister said the report was due to be presented to the board today.

The board has not said whether sacked chief executive John Davy has paid back the $20,000 he owes to MTS.

Mr Davy's immigration status had still not been verified.

The Serious Fraud Office refused to say whether it was investigating Mr Davy.

Wayne Brown said the timing of his resignation letter had nothing to do with the John Davy scandal: "There's no connection at all, I'm just too busy at Auckland health, it's a really big job."

He had missed several board meetings and was concerned he was not pulling his weight on the Maori television board.

A spokeswoman for Dr Cullen said the minister accepted that Mr Brown was heavily overcommitted with other work but wanted him to help out during "this rough patch".

Mr Brown is a member of the Land Transport Safety Authority, chairman of Vector, and holds a number of other public and private positions.

Mr Brown said he had met John Davy only briefly but that "on paper he looked pretty good" and it was not the board's fault they had been duped.

In Parliament, Dr Cullen revealed new information about the contract between the firm that recruited Mr Davy, Millennium People, and MTS, saying it contained a clause guaranteeing the quality of candidates it recommended.

This may be a key component of legal action that could be taken against Millennium People by MTS.

However, Opposition MPs indicated a potential defence for Millennium People, suggesting the company had written to the board recommending credit and security checks.

It has been reported that New Zealand credit records show DaimlerChrysler Financial Services repossessed a vehicle of Mr Davy's on August 24 last year. Mr Davy had also defaulted on a "medium-sized" hire purchase with Frontline Finance on household goods in March.

Mr Davy refused to open his door to the Herald yesterday but said he could not reveal his plans "because you people have already put my life in danger".

"I won't be commenting for the next couple of days."

Full coverage: Maori TV