Comments on: Snouts in trough

By: Damage control on Boag affair « Red Alert

Damage control on Boag affair « Red Alert — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 16:03:27 +0000

[...] see Heather McCracken’s original story in the Herald on Sunday, my Red Alert posts from Sunday and Wednesday, Thursday’s Herald story by Derek Cheng, the transcript from question time, and [...]

By: Phil Twyford

Phil Twyford — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 02:41:01 +0000

latest: Attempts by the Auckland Transition Agency to downplay the politicisation of the recruitment process around the new super city management team won’t wash with the hundreds of senior managers applying for the jobs, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Phil Twyford.
http://labour.org.nz/news/ata-must-accept-boag-company-mistake-and-act-it

By: Anton Craig

Anton Craig — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 21:38:55 +0000

You’ve probably seen this but it’s sickening: http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/waiheke-marketplace/3292216/Power-couple-plans-exit

By: Phil Twyford

Phil Twyford — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 20:43:32 +0000

@ william – First and at the risk of being nit-picky, Mike Moore never worked for the World Bank, and Oxfam doesnt get its money from the World Bank, and most of Oxfam’s income comes from private sources. But second, I am interested to know why you think running an NGO is so different from running a business? NGOs generally have a ‘public good’ mission but in almost every other respect they are private sector organisations. They operate in highly competitive markets. If they don’t make money they fall over. They hire and fire staff, sell goods and services, keep an eye on cashflow, maintain their assets, manage risk, protect their brands, report to stakeholders, account to the broader community for what they do, focus on the bottom line, look after their balance sheets, and deliver value to their customers (donors) and other stakeholders.

@ Chris – It was Oxfam.

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 19:21:08 +0000

No, Phil worked for TradeAid. And that business is more ethical and private than many so called ‘private’ sector businesses suckling on the govt’s teat gettting corporate welfare.

By: william

william — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 10:15:08 +0000

Phil, are you counting your time with Oxfam as private sector? Surely not. Oxfam is not for profit and having been able to get Mike Moore to give you world bank money is not what those of us who have worked in the private sector- and for large corporations – would count as private sector experience.

By: Mark Derby

Mark Derby — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 08:21:28 +0000

Banks defends himself by saying Boag is “an honest and ethical person”. Would that be the same Michelle Boag who was done like a dinner some years back for filming a court case and lying to the judge about it?

By: Phil Twyford

Phil Twyford — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 04:46:57 +0000

Reported today:

The Auckland Transition Agency says Michelle Boag’s company Momentum won the contract to hire executives for the super city council fair and square. An ATA spokesperson says there was an open public tender process, at the end of which it was decided Momentum had the best proposal in terms of quality, process and lowest cost structure.

That is great that the Auckland Transition Agency says it ran an open public tender process. I look forward to seeing the documents.

However I want to stress that the allegation of conflict of interest is fundamentally about the impropriety of a politial partisan like Ms Boag vetting and recruiting the people who should be politically neutral public servants of the new super city.

I maintain it is a very bad look. How can any potential employee for those level 3 executive positions have confidence they will get a fair hearing when they know Mayor Banks’ pro bono PR adviser is doing the vetting? Given the conflict of interest how can the people of Auckland have confidence that the appointments won’t reflect the growing public view that the entire exercise is a political jack up by Hide, the Nats, and the Auckland business elite?

By: TopCat

TopCat — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 10:57:00 +0000

This is the problem with the scorched earth policy of Rodney- the administration of the new Auckland council will spend the first ten years of its life re-structuring and re-organising itself before it will be able to achieve anything.

Whoever is appointed by ATA and the Interim CEO will be seen as a political appointment (no matter how deserving they may be). The new council will ask for a re-structure because they won’t like what ATA gives them, then they will apppoint a new CEO when the interim CEO finsihes his contract term. What do you think teh cahnaces of them being happy with the ATA-Rodney Hide appointed CEO? . The permanent CEO will want appoint his or her confidants and spend large amounts of money getting rid of the senior management that was point in place by ATA.

Keeping and re-modelling the existing structures and transferring responsibilities would have been infinitely more manageable.

By: Phil Twyford

Phil Twyford — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 07:24:42 +0000

@ “Once A Labourite” – You obviously have a very dim view of private sector ethics, which I don’t share. And I dont know why you think I havent worked in the private sector. I started a business, ran it for nine years, annual turnover $3 million; and have served on the board and senior management team of a multinational group with annual turnover approx half billion dollars. How does that compare with your private sector experience?