Top govt manager in 'physical contact' complaint now subject of conflict of interest concerns
Thursday, 6 March 2025
A senior manager on secondment from ACC to Health NZ/Te Whatu Ora is at the centre of conflict of interest concerns over work awarded to his business partner.
Stuff reported last month that John Bennett was the subject of a complaint at ACC about “physical contact with co-workers”, and also raised eyebrows among staff for appearing shirtless in a work video call.
Now questions have been raised about work being carried out for ACC and Health NZ by UK-based MBI Health, co-founded by Bennett in 2012.
Bennett is no longer a director of the company but is in partnership with the co-founder in two other businesses.
ACC says it has clear processes for how it manages “potential and perceived conflicts of interest involving our people” and is confident those processes have been followed.
A senior manager loaned to Health NZ/Te Whatu Ora from ACC is at the centre of conflict of interest concerns over work awarded to his business partner at both agencies.
John Bennett took up a senior management role at ACC in September 2024, but in February was pulled across to plug gaps in senior roles at Health NZ, in a secondment scheduled to last until June this year.
Last month, Stuff revealed Bennett was the subject of a complaint about “physical contact with co-workers” in December, which ACC did not disclose to Health NZ/Te Whatu Ora because it said it had already addressed the matter by immediately taking action in response to the concern.
It did not say what that action was.
In a separate issue that raised eyebrows among ACC staff, in January Bennett appeared in a work video call shirtless, “unaware the laptop’s video camera was on”.
Now, Stuff can report new concerns related to Bennett, this time over the awarding of work to a UK-based company he co-founded in 2012, MBI Health.
While Bennett resigned as a director of the company in 2020, he remains a director in two other companies with co-founder Barry Mulholland.
On Monday, Stuff put a series of questions to both ACC and Health NZ/Te Whatu Ora about what contract or contracts had been awarded to MBI Health, whether they were aware of Bennett’s historic connection with the company and ongoing connection with Mulholland, and whether that was a potential conflict of interest.
In a statement on Tuesday, ACC Chief Executive Megan Main said ACC had “clear processes in place for how it manages potential and perceived conflicts of interest involving our people”.
“We are confident these processes have been followed.”
Stuff sought clarification on what ACC saw as the perceived or potential conflict of interest, what process was followed, and who oversaw it.
ACC did not answer those questions, saying in a one-line statement, “We have nothing to add to yesterday’s response”.
Te Whatu Ora said in a statement, “John Bennett has advised us that he has no conflicts of interest in relation to his secondment to Health NZ.
“He is not involved in any Health NZ commercial bids or procurement and does not hold any financial or decision-making delegation in the role he has been seconded to.”
Stuff asked whether, aside from Bennett’s own advice, Health NZ was itself satisfied there were no conflicts of interest or perceived conflicts of interest, and whether processes for managing any potential conflict were followed.
At the time of publication, Te Whatu Ora said it was in the process of preparing a response to those questions.
Neither agency provided answers about the specifics of any contracts awarded to Mulholland or MBI Health.
However, recently Mulholland hinted at the nature of some of the work, posting a photo of New Zealand’s Parliament Buildings on his LinkedIn page along with the comment: “Lots to do to fix waiting lists here but MBI Health are onto it!”.
Mulholland did not respond to Stuff’s efforts to contact him.
Bennett did not answer questions from Stuff, but said they had been forwarded to ACC to deal with.