Only Government Cash Can Save Stadium

The plan for a new Stadium is dead unless the the Government comes up with money to replace the shortfall from other funding sources. The fund-raising from the private sector is well-short of target and the Community Trust of Otago has suffered from the current financial decline and no longer has a spare $10 million. I have no doubt that intense lobbying is going on to try to get cash from the new National Government's "infrastructure" spendup.
But the Government should be aware that giving money which enables the Stadium to go ahead will be controversial and unpopular with a large proportion of Otago people. Locals would be still left with high rates and an enormous debt to repay.
Surveys and submissions to local bodies have consistently shown a significant majority opposed to a new Stadium if it is largely publicly funded.

Slack Management Allows Otago DHB Fraud

Otago District Health Board Chairman, Richard Thomson, is talking a lot about the $17.8 million fraud by Michael Swann. We are getting lots of excuses, but no-one is being held to account for the slack management.

Richard Thomson says:

One of Brian Rousseau's early actions after his arrival here was to get an independent review done of our IT strategy.

The reviewers' list does not include the "contracts" because, if they existed at the time, Swann made sure they were not available to review.

But why was the total value of the reviewed contracts not compared with the actual amount being spent on IT: the fraud would have then been apparent. A diligent manager would have done this, but Brian Rousseau did not.
The responsibility for the culture of an organisation ultimately lies the the man at the top. Richard Thomson was Chairman during almost all the time the fraud was taking place. He would gain respect if he did the decent thing and resigned.