Christchurch city failed to delegate quake cover properly
Christchurch City Council failed to delegate responsibility appropriately for the city's earthquake cover after chief executive Tony Marryatt also joined the board of Civic Assurance.
BUSINESSDESK: Christchurch City Council failed to delegate responsibility appropriately for the city’s earthquake cover after its chief executive, Tony Marryatt, also joined the board of Civic Assurance, a local government-owned infrastructure insurer.
The Office of the Auditor-General reports that the arrangements to manage Mr Marryatt’s conflict of interest meant “insurance decisions were not properly authorised”.
Mr Marryatt appropriately stood down from CCC discussions on insurance cover because of his conflicting role on the Civic Assurance board, but “nobody identified that the consequence of this exclusion was that the delegation from the Council to arrange insurance was not being complied with”, the report tabled in Parliament says.
“We have concluded that Mr Marryatt appropriately excluded himself from decisions about placement of the council’s insurance cover after he became a director of Civic Assurance in March 2008.
“On the question of whether Mr Marryatt’s two roles are compatible, we have concluded that there are few areas of overlap, and that there is no reason for him not to continue in both roles if the council puts in place better arrangements to manage his involvement in decisions about insurance matters.”
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Christchurch city failed to delegate quake cover properly
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