Mr Ward, chief executive until October last year, less than two months before the tragedy, will not be coming over from Australia for the hearings.
Sources represented at the inquiry, who did not want to be named, told Radio New Zealand today Mr Ward must have set up many of the company's systems and made many of its financial decisions.
While he would not have made any mining decisions, his absence left a hole in the inquiry as he must hold information into what went wrong in the mine, they said.
The commission said it asked Mr Ward to appear but he declined. It can not compel a person living overseas to appear.
The final phase of the inquiry, which has focused on what happened in the lead up to the series of blasts in the West Coast coal mine in November last year which killed 29 men, resumes today.
Former chairman John Dow will make his first appearance, as the focus of the inquiry turns to the company's management structures and systems prior to the fatal explosions.
The mine's former safety and training manager Neville Rockhouse, former safety training co-ordinator Adrian Couchman and Albert Houlden from mine contractor McConnell Dowell will also give evidence.
- Herald Online
