Former CEO gives evidence in long running case

The long running Operation Slush case continues at the High Court before Justice Nicholson.
In the witness box on Tuesday was defence witness, Brett George who acted as CEO to Norman George while Minister of Environment and also Outer Islands Island Affairs from February to December 2002. Counsel for the defendant is Tim Arnold while the Crown Prosecutors are Mike Ruffin and Kim Saunders.
Brett was quizzed by counsel, Tim Arnold about his actions on the dates of 7 and 8 October 2002, while in NZ which he said was to take delivery of a car for the Environment Service, a Kia Mentor and put it into a container. Happily it coincided with when his mother had to have medical treatment so he could get on with his work related duties and still be near his father and mother.
Questioning then turned to entries in Junior Areai’s diary of 1 October re some faxed invoices for safety equipment. When shown the documents, Brett said they appeared to be air freight charges.
Junior was in New Zealand at the time but did not visit the hospital at any time.
How did he know that? Because he drove his father and mother to the hospital for an 8am operation and zoomed in and out all day long with lunches and checking in every few hours whereas his father maintained an all day vigil at the hospital beside his wife. His father had also chatted with an orderly from Pukapuka who turned out to be brother to Captain Gee, who is a radio personality here.
Brett said he even had to persuade his father to leave his mother to sleep at 8pm and on the way to the motel, they picked up some Chinese takeaways and had a nice feast together at the motel before he drove back to his cousin’s home in Papatoetoe.
What about the barbecue that Junior said your father had attended at your uncle’s place and where he received some money? Not at all, there was no such barbecue and was quite insulted that Junior would think having a barbecue was more important than a mother and wife.
What about the claim by Junior of receiving $2000 from the Slush fund and a $1000 cash cheque from Keith Niederer? Not at all. The first he heard of it was subsequently at the trial.
When Minister George came into office, the budget for the outer islands had a surplus of $3million and the Minister was motivated to create work in the outer islands especially for young males to give them jobs.
Even then depopulation was a problem but Brett was not sure if you could call it a crisis but it was an exodus. Having the road and airport projects meant there was a need for people to operate and maintain machinery. They also needed a labour force for the beautification project, the crusher workers and general clean up side of road workers.
When asked the meaning of being CEO for the Minister, Brett said it was really a ‘glorified PA’ (personal assistant) and that his father was a big picture man and not nuts and bolts stuff and thus would not be involved in everyday details.
To his recollection, Junior and George Pitt (then chairman of the Environment Council) would drop into the office say at 9am for tea and doughnuts whereas as the CEO, he would pick his father up at 7.30am and stay all day with the Minister and then drive his father home at around 8pm.
Did he know of the activities of Junior? Not at all, not at the time.
What about the entry of 23 October: ‘Cabinet paid my refund?’ As CEO would he be routinely be involved in submissions to Cabinet? Yes he did have that responsibility but had no recollection of refunds or any Cabinet submissions of the sort
In fact, the first he heard anything about paying refunds for travel was on 7 December 2002, the day we were dismissed. Junior demanded $6500 or $7000 and when he queried the transactions, Junior complained to the Minister as well. Feeling sorry for Junior, he asked for receipts telling him that everything had to be accounted for and that the office was being closed down.
Junior gave him receipts for $110 from Jetsave Travel and he reimbursed him and felt sorry for him and now there are charges of fraud.
Cross examination by Mike Ruffin was a long ordeal as every item of evidence was picked over in minute detail which has already been entered into court many times over in the trial. For instance, when the Minster was sworn in (12 February 2002) and where they operated (in the now NZ High Commission building) and hours of work (8am -8pm and Sundays because of no interruptions) and his bar (Nu Bar was open at 6pm to 10pm or so except Fridays when it closed at 2am).
Did he ever leave his father’s side? Well he would leave to get the lunches for them both.
Did his Nu Bar open for lunches during that time? Yes but only for a short time and his father was their ‘star customer’ and loved the lasagna and salad lunches but it was not profitable for lunches and they shut it down and kept the evening hours only.
Did Junior commence employ with the Minister (or NES) in March 2002? No, he started in April but March was the Operation Namu work and he has his dates mixed up.
What about the invoice from Agro Accessories NZ of March 2002 where Junior is referred to as the Liaison Officer for Government of Cook Islands which suggest that Junior started on 3 March 2002. Brett said it could suggest that he planned his own future title and that Junior had originally wanted to be called the CEO but could not because Brett already had that position.
When Junior did begin, he took the position vacated by their international environmental advisor, Ms Io Lindsay who resigned her post to move overseas. As far as Brett knew the salary was supposed to be something like $20,000 at NES and $10,000 or $15,000 at the Minister’s office.
Much later, it transpired that Junior had actually negotiated a pay packet of $40,000 at NES plus what he collected from the Minister’s office and even later it transpired that Junior at the time had owned and operated called Rarotonga Global Supplies which specialized in supplying safety gear which he sold to various government agencies during the asbestos clean up operations at the time.
Did the Minister every authorize Junior to purchase machinery? Not at all, he was supposed to simply ‘source’ or identify the supplier and then have MOID handle the actual purchases.
Purchase of crushers was to be handled by Chris Vaile who was agent for Keith Niedererr and Junior was to take care of ‘sourcing’ other machinery related to drilling etc. The Minister wanted to eliminate the waste of money by the Ministry. (From separate evidence much earlier in the trial, the court was told that MOID staff had a tendency to accept whatever prices they were quoted without negotiation and very little comparison with other suppliers. In other words, it was not by tender with three quotes.).
The case continues with more defence witnesses yet to testify.

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