Otago District Health Board chairman Richard Thomson has been asked to go to Wellington to explain to Health Minister Tony Ryall the background to the multimillion-dollar fraud case.
Mr Ryall said in a statement yesterday: "Public confidence in the Otago board has been severely shaken by this unprecedented fraud".
In response to questions from the Otago Daily Times, Mr Ryall said the people of Otago were still asking who would take responsibility for the fraud.
"I am anxious for public confidence to be restored in the Otago DHB."
The two will meet in the week following the first Cabinet meeting of the year on January 19.
Mr Thomson said he had briefed the previous health minister about the almost $17 million fraud and contacted Mr Ryall's office before Christmas offering to do the same for the new minister.
Mr Ryall's office contacted him yesterday and said they would like him to explain the fraud, he said.
The Otago board's former chief information officer Michael Swann and his friend and business associate, Kerry Harford, are in custody awaiting sentence for defrauding the board of $16.9 million by charging for computer-related services they never provided.
Since the fraud was uncovered and the guilty verdicts were delivered against Swann and Harford on December 5, Mr Thomson had received mixed feedback from the public, although the level had been surprisingly low.
He said he had done his best to communicate with board staff and the public about the fraud.
Most of the feedback, following two open letters to staff, which were also printed in the Otago Daily Times, had been positive.
"I accept there will be people who will undoubtedly feel that people other than the criminals are responsible.
"If you inherit something bad you subsequently discover and take action, then it is difficult to know what else you can do.
''The question is: `Have you acted on what you know?' and in my case the answer is yes."
Late last month, Mr Ryall was seeking more information about audits and internal procedures at the Otago board.
He has previously expressed concerns about how one of the biggest - if not the biggest - public service frauds went undetected for so long.
Mr Ryall said the Ministry of Health had assured him the health sector had learnt from the experience of the Otago board and there was now a greater emphasis on anti-fraud measures.
