Mr King, a mental health advocate, made a lengthy post on LinkedIn about an Auditor-General report that found the I Am Hope’s government contract for Gumboot Friday was being managed properly.
It comes a year after criticism of the government’s hurried procurement process for the mental health programme.
In May 2024, the government announced that the I Am Hope foundation would receive $6 million a year for four years to provide counselling services for people aged 5 to 25. The $24 million was pledged as part of the coalition agreement in 2023, providing access to free mental health counselling services for more than 15,000 Kiwis a year.
The Auditor-General report was released in response to Ms Leary, who pushed for an investigation to see if the contract was giving value for money.
"After two years of constant public criticism from Labour MP Ingrid Leary and repeated innuendo about mismanagement of funds, the Auditor-General has now made it crystal clear," King wrote on LinkedIn.
"I Am Hope and the Gumboot Friday contract are being managed properly and in line with good practice.
"That is the finding. Full stop."
Ms Leary told the Otago Daily Times the situation was "not about any individual".
"This is about holding the government to account for their funding choices and I won't stop advocating for young people."
Mr King had "cherry-picked" elements of the Auditor-General’s letter, she said.
"I would encourage people to read the letter themselves and form their own opinions.
"However, as I say, this is not about Mike King. This is about an opposition spokesperson doing their job."
He said both he and I Am Hope do not receive a "single cent" of government funding and all the money goes directly to counselling sessions for young people.
"When Ms Leary calls for funding to be withdrawn, she is not punishing me. She is not punishing I Am Hope.
"She is punishing the 5-to-25-year-olds who rely on free counselling when they need it most.
"That is the part that has never seemed to bother her."
Ms Leary said she called for funding to be "paused" in direct response to what she considered to be "dangerous statements" made by Mr King about the role of alcohol as a response to mental health issues.
Those comments were made by Mr King on NewstalkZB last year, in which he said "alcohol is not a problem for people with mental health issues, it’s actually the solution to our problem, until you come up with a better solution."
Ms Leary said it was "entirely appropriate for me to suggest that the funding be paused because of the public health concerns over those statements".
She had been "very careful" throughout all her scrutiny "to level my focus at the government, its procurement process and its contract management".
"My initial queries were vindicated when the Auditor-General came out with a fairly damning report about the lack of process for the procurement.
"Given the complex contracting arrangements and MOU [memorandum of understanding] between the Ministry of Health, Health New Zealand and I Am Hope, I think it is entirely appropriate for the opposition to continue to scrutinise and require transparency."
Her interest was in good process, transparency, accountability and value for money, she said.
One of the prime considerations when considering value for money was what else could be purchased for that amount of money.
"We have seen over this term of government many grassroots mental health organisations who have done incredible work over the years, fall over, as a result of lack of government funding.
"We also have unanswered questions that I think donors and taxpayers are interested in, regarding big salaries of I Am Hope members, which are out of step with the sector."
It was her job as opposition spokesperson to ask those questions on behalf of taxpayers, she said.
But Mr King urged Ms Leary to return to South Dunedin and represent the people who elected her.
"The people of South Dunedin deserve representation that focuses on them, rather than on scoring points off my name."
The Auditor-General said audit work had been completed and the ministry’s handling of the contract was sound.
