A mockery of governance

The frustration from Southern District Health Board member Richard Thomson is palpable.

Once again he has slated the lack of information provided to board members, this time to the hospitals' advisory committee meeting in Invercargill this week. Once again his frustration is perfectly understandable. Board and members of board committees cannot do their jobs if they are kept in the dark. Brief reports with next to no detail make a mockery of the duty of board members to govern.

Mr Thomson has every right to be touchy on this point. It was he who came in for some of the blame for the Michael Swann debacle because he was chairman of the Otago District Health Board for part of the period of Swann's massive fraud. That was one of the supposed reasons for him being dumped by the Government as chairman, even though the rorts began before his watch and were eventually revealed while he was in charge ... READ MORE

Released by The Otago Daily Times - 4 May 2012