Toitū te Waiora 'CEO' Donovan Clarke Used Work Credit Card for Lobster and Booze; NZ Herald Paywalls It
December 18, 2022
PHOTO: Michael Cunningham
The chief executive of a public agency used his taxpayer-funded credit card to pay for lobster dinners, booze and multiple post-midnight taxis during a work trip to Sydney earlier this year.
The August trip by Donovan Clarke, chief executive of Toitū te Waiora, to attend a conference run by the Council of Ambulance Authorities, cost taxpayers nearly $6325.
The four-day trip was capped by Clarke enjoying a lunch of wings and beer, dinner of lobster, prawn and calamari, before finally getting a taxpayer-funded taxi back to his four-star hotel at 3:36am - just three hours before another taxi was hailed to take him from Novotel Darling Harbour to Sydney Airport for his return flight to Wellington.
oitū te Waiora, responsible for improving industry education in the health and social service sectors, is one of six Workforce Development Councils (WDCs) set up last year in a major reform of vocational education.
At the time of their establishment, Minister of Education Chris Hipkins said it was a “major milestone in what is the biggest reform of vocational education in a generation”.