The S-Files

It's What We Need More Of

Contra Celsum has decided to bestow an S-Award upon Jerry Rickman, Waikato Health Board Chairman.

Citation:

Jerry Rickman has announced his resignation as Chairman of the Waikato Health Board. He has cited potential conflicts of interest between his role as chairman and his consultancy work with Price Waterhouse Coopers in Hamilton.

The Board uses the services of the Auckland office of PWC.

Of note here is that Rickman had already disclosed his interests, both to the Minister of Health and to the Board. Both accepted there was no unmanageable conflict. According to a news report, he said he was resigning because he did not want to place the Government or the minister in a position for potential public embarrassment.

No doubt Rickman's firm, PWC, applied some pressure. It has very strict rules for its staff and consultants on issues of conflicts of interest.

We applaud the high standards of integrity on display here. Public service and corporate life would be vastly improved if such standards were routinely followed. If the standard expected was not just actual, but perceived conflicts, resignations would be flying around everywhere.

We also hope that this resignation might reflect a greater consciousness amongst the media and the public generally over issues of conflict of interest. The health sector has had several high profile cases of allegations of conflict of interest in the past year.

The current Prime Minister has eventually removed the appearance of any conflict over his personal investment portfolio by placing it in a "blind" trust. It took time, but he got there. His predecessor never did get there. The former government seemed to specialise in cronyism with all the attendant conflicts that follow.

Jerry Rickman has gone beyond what many would consider was required. But the example is important and the effects will be salutary. We trust that they will spread far beyond the Waikato Health Board.

S-Award, Class I: Jerry Rickman, former Chairman of the Waikato District Health Board, for actions in the course of public duty which have been Smart, Sound, and Salutary.