During the hospital advisory committee's monthly meeting, Mr Potiki said he could understand there were some costs outside the board's control such as higher than expected increases in wages.
The report from the chief operating officer Vivian Blake which said expenses to the end of May in the board's services were over budget by about $7.4 million by the end of the year looked "pretty bleak", he said.
He questioned whether some costs other than wages, including a $126,000 over-run in transport costs, could have been predicted.
The committee was told these were due to refurbishment of returned lease vehicles and overlap in lease costs when new cars had been received before old ones were returned.
Business analyst Grant Paris told the committee information technology (IT) depreciation and equipment leases were under budgeted and were expected to be about $310,000 over budget at the end of the year.
Adjustments had not been made to 2006 figures.
The financing part of IT operating leases was not budgeted last year due to an oversight, the committee heard, and this is expected to result in a further $340,000 over budget.
Board chairman Richard Thomson said the board had to put figures into its budgets about wages even though it believed it would be highly unlikely to hold wages to that figure.
About half of the $7.4 million overspend would be related to wages.
Another $1.5 million of the excess related to spending on drugs.
The IT overspending was "a genuine cock-up".
By the end of the year, additional revenue would offset some of the amounts overspent and the board would be not too far off in its forecast, apart from wages, he said.
Mrs Blake's report showed revenue for the board's services to the end of May was $4,118,000 ahead of budget.
Mrs Blake said the board could have predicted there was going to be a cost in the return of leased vehicles, but forecasting staffing costs was difficult and " I don't think we will ever get it right".
In the past five years, the board had been trying to improve its bottom line by such things as ensuring it received all money due from ACC, undertaking extra work from other boards when it could, and seeing where costs could be saved in areas such as wound care management and waste management, and in its procurement and purchasing policy.
