In December 2008, the ODT sought salary information within $10,000 bands for the positions on the regional executive management team of the former Otago and Southland district health boards following a restructure.
When that request was refused, the ODT complained to the Ombudsmen's Office, which concluded its investigation last month, suggesting the board release the numbers of the management team in $10,000 salary bands, without linking the bands to positions.
Ombudsman David McGee said this would protect the privacy of the team members and address the public interest.
While chief executive Brian Rousseau's full remuneration package is listed in band form in the board annual report - last year between $470,000 and $480,000 - arguments that such reporting should apply to the whole of the top management team were not accepted by Mr McGee.
During his investigation, he was obliged to seek the opinion of Privacy Commissioner Marie Shroff.
She agreed with his view that salary information of second-tier management within public organisations attracted a lower privacy interest than that generally applicable to the employment information of other individuals.
However, she said consideration had to be given to the fact that in the board's case, giving salary band information for the positions on the executive management team would effectively identify individuals.
The information now released does not divulge anything about team members' full remuneration, including "at-risk" portions of their salary, vehicles and superannuation.
The top basic salary, presumably Mr Rousseau's, is listed as being in the $421,000 to $430,000 bracket, something which has remained unchanged since November 2008.
Before November 2008, the boards still each had their own chief executive.
At the end of June this year, the next highest basic salary was listed as being between $251,000 and $260,000, involving one full-time equivalent (FTE).
Before and after the 2008 restructure, there had been one FTE on the higher basic salary of $261,000 to $270,000 and nobody in the $251,000 to $260,000 bracket.
Since the 2008 restructure, one of the positions which has changed is that of planning and funding general manager.
Rather than being a stand-alone position, it is now combined with that of the chief financial officer, Robert Mackway-Jones, following the departure of David Chrisp at the end of May.
Information released this month, following a new request from the ODT to update the salary situation, suggests that the streamlining of the executive management team from 13.9 FTE in November 2008 to the 8.1 by the end of June this year may have reduced the cost of the team's basic salaries by $461,945 to $2,477,677.
However, the ODT was unable to establish on Friday whether the latest figures given included vacant positions on the executive management team and whether they could be properly compared with figures given earlier relating to 2008.
It was also not clear how many positions there are on the current executive management team, including any vacancies.
In November 2008, there were 17 positions on the team (including vacancies), but from December 2008 that number dropped to 14 and, while the board website lists nine members on the current team, it does not include the University of Otago representative, or make reference to any vacancies such as that for a Maori representative and a person representing primary health care.
Not all positions are full time.
Those listed on the website are Mr Rousseau, his deputy Lexie O'Shea, who is also Southland's chief operating officer, Otago chief operating officer Vivian Blake, finance and funding general manager Robert Mackway-Jones, chief nursing and midwifery officer Leanne Samuel, chief information officer Grant Taylor, human resources general manager Karyn Penno, Otago chief medical officer Richard Bunton, and Southland interim chief medical officer Murray Fosbender.
