Receipts for former health chief Nigel Murray show big travel sprees

Former Chief Executive at Waikato District Health Board, Nigel Murray (looking at the camera). Photo / Christine Cornege

Expenses for a former health board chief executive who resigned after an investigation found "unauthorised spending", show extensive international travel and queries by staff over the spending.

Dr Nigel Murray resigned his top post at Waikato DHB last month ending an investigation by the DHB into the $218,000 he spent in three years.

But yesterday Health Minister David Clark asked the State Services Commissioner to launch an investigation into Murray's spending, which the Weekend Herald understands involved costs for travel and accommodation associated with two Canadian women.

The announcement follows a Herald investigation into Murray's spending stretching back to last December when it emerged the CEO had not disclosed his expenses for two years.

Yesterday the DHB finally released hundreds of pages of receipts detailing Murray's expense claims, prompted by three requests under the Official Information Act.

The receipts show Murray:

• Lived for six months in taxpayer-funded accommodation with another person;

• Spent double the $25,000 agreed to relocate him from Canada;

• Spent $91,506 in the last financial year;

• Travelled to New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vancouver, Moncton, Montreal, and Sydney throughout the three years;

• Went to Vancouver for a week during a trip to the United States he said was to meet with HealthTap, an IT firm based near San Francisco;

• Hired a rental car in Canada for a month at a cost of $1193.

The expenses released yesterday were also altered by the DHB compared to those disclosed in January this year.

It deleted the $11,710 Murray claimed for early arrival accommodation costs and reduced the March 2015 visit to HealthTap from $8929 to $1488.

The Weekend Herald revealed in August Murray was a no-show at a US conference he was invited to attend with 35 other New Zealand delegates.

Murray said then he was in the US to meet with HealthTap to advance potential opportunities as part of the DHB's establishment of its SmartHealth app.

"It was my intention to attend the [conference] meetings but unfortunately it was not possible within the timeframe. There was no cost to the DHB for not attending."

A travel request form shows Murray included seven nights in Canada on that trip, which was signed off by board chairman Bob Simcock.

In Murray's 2016/17 expenses three trips to the United States and Canada between September and December last year all show zero cost.

DHB spokeswoman Lydia Aydon said those trips have been invoiced to Murray. She could not release the cost but said it came within the amount he has agreed to pay back, which is less than $50,000.

Another three-day trip in May this year to HealthTap in Palo Alto, near San Francisco, cost $7615.

Simcock said the money Murray owes, including the $30,000 he has already paid back, were not authorised expenses that were somehow charged directly to the DHB.

He said if someone acted outside policy without others knowing it was difficult to intervene.