Waipareira faces suit from CEO

By MATHEW DEARNALEY and JON STOKES

West Auckland's troubled Waipareira Trust, which paid an untaxed golden handshake to senior Government MP John Tamihere, faces a six-figure legal claim from its chief executive.

Reg Ratahi is not commenting on well-sourced information received by the Herald that he is suing the urban iwi authority for $200,000 over a failed bid by minority board members in July to oust him from the top job.

This followed a report by one of them alleging that Mr Ratahi, Waipareira chairman Eynon Delamere and chief financial officer Bruce Bryant committed the trust to loans worth millions of dollars and sold assets without board approval.

All five of the dissident faction on the 15-member board of the trust, which has more than 15,000 beneficiaries, have since been dumped.

But Mr Delamere, whom the faction also tried to remove, has disclosed that the partly taxpayer-funded trust received a letter last week from Mr Ratahi setting out a personal grievance claim under the Employment Relations Act.

It was the dumped faction's allegations of financial mismanagement that led to the audit by accounting firm Deloitte, uncovering a $195,000 payout to Mr Tamihere after he resigned as chief executive of Waipareira on his election to Parliament in 1999.

Ironically, Mr Tamihere was one of a four-member audit committee which commissioned the Deloitte investigation. Mr Delamere would not discuss the nature of the claim, or amount sought, although he agreed Mr Ratahi was alleging some form of disadvantage from the attempted coup in July.

Asked whether the board would defend itself against the claim, he said it would "work through a process" which it had not yet had a chance to discuss.

He would not be drawn on difficulties the board may face in trying to fend off a claim with which he and other members may sympathise.

Mr Ratahi denied sending a personal grievance letter to the trust in his own hand, and would not be drawn on whether his lawyer or some other representative may have written on his behalf.

An employee alleging a personal grievance normally has up to 90 days to raise it with the employer, or longer if exceptional circumstances are established.

If unresolved, the grievance will be referred to confidential mediation or - failing that - to a public hearing by the Employment Relations Authority.

Last week, Labour MP Clayton Cosgrove, speaking under parliamentary privilege, accused Mr Ratahi and two other senior trust figures of colluding with Act leader Rodney Hide to try to bring down Mr Tamihere as "payback" for his part in exposing the trust's financial affairs.

Mr Tamihere has stood down from the Cabinet while a Government-appointed investigator, Douglas White, QC, looks into details of the trust's payout to him.