Tuesday, September 14, 2010

So that's where my money goes....

It is quite astonishing how quickly your taxes are spent; it is also quite astonishing how much you can find on this internet thing! Whilst searching for some info I found this. Who would have guessed you could find, online, the detailed credit card spending of the CEO's of the twenty district health boards. Of course it would be remiss of me not to share with you the winners and losers in spending your hard earned cash. Don't get me wrong, those who know me are well aware that I am all for increasing public spending, but believe that this public spending should be targeted at improving the population, not filtered to people already earning decent six figure salaries. There is of course the argument that if you pay peanuts you get monkeys, hence CEO salaries need to be high to attract the right calibre required for these stressful positions.

First up is the winner of the 'Hey Big Spender' award - a close run this one; at first I thought it would be John Peters of the Nelson and Marlborough DHB, who amassed $31800 in two years (well 17c short of that to be precise); not bad for a CEO whose organisation is responsible for just 120000 people - that's nearly 30 cents per person on his credit card tab. Admittedly Mr. Peters does seem to pay for several of his senior staff members conference fees on his card, but nonetheless there are several evening meals as farewells, each at around $100 per attendee. However it is Chris Fleming, the CEO of New Zealand's fourth smallest DHB South Canterbury who is the overall winner. A staggering $39726 in two years - all for serving a population of just 55000; included in Mr. Fleming's account are the annual renewal of his membership of the Institute of Chartered Accountants (not once, not twice, but three times), membership of the Institute of Directors and attendance at several very expensive courses.

Commendations go out to several other CEO's, who have demonstrate less extravagance; Tairawhiti managed to keep two years of spending to under $1000, whilst even the megalithic Canterbury DHB was only $3000.

So the combined CEO's managed about half a million dollars on various food, drink, Ipod chargers, dry cleaning, gifts and various other important items. Good to know someone is using you health dollars well!

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