Hiring expensive contractors at the Southern District Health Board is necessary to keep the organisation running, deputy commissioner Richard Thomson says.
A partner at accounting firm Deloitte New Zealand, Mike Hoshek, of Christchurch, is acting chief financial officer for the board until the position is filled.
And it was recently revealed the board spent $486,000 over 13 months on Alma Consulting. The bill for the Auckland consulting firm will increase because its work continues.
''When you bring people in on short-term contracts on a consultancy basis they always cost more.
''[But] do you run without [a CFO]? That would be just ridiculous,'' Mr Thomson said.
He cited the failed Health Benefits Ltd scheme to centralise finance analysts in Auckland for causing many top staff to leave during the period of uncertainty.
''It was a very difficult situation for Carole [Heatly] and for Peter [Beirne] when they were trying to hold a financial situation that was really bad together when the team was disappearing around them.''
Former chief financial officer Peter Beirne had moved to a new role supervising the $300million Dunedin Hospital rebuild. While not much is happening on the rebuild at present, Mr Beirne was busy planning the urgent upgrade of the intensive care unit which is proposed for the next few months, pending Government approval. It was important to get the right person for the chief finance role.
''I would rather have somebody really competent there on a consultancy basis until we get somebody really competent, than grab the first person who makes themselves available, and end up with somebody who's not able to give us what we need, and we're stuck with them for a long time.''
Commissioner Kathy Grant said hiring high-level finance expertise was ''critical'' to the cash-strapped organisation.
''There are some critical positions and some that are less critical. The DHB's financial position is such that finance is a critical area for the DHB.''
Mrs Grant said the board advertised for a CFO, but the preferred applicant was unable to relocate to Dunedin. A permanent appointment would be made as soon as a suitable applicant was found.
Yesterday, the board declined to release the business case for the urgent upgrade of the ICU/audiology/gastroenterology units. It cited a right to ''free and frank expression of opinions'' for withholding the document, which was requested under the Official Information Act. The proposal was considered by the capital investment committee in Wellington this month, and will need to be approved by Cabinet.
