Ministerial elbow for Rural Bank director

Press, 30 March 1989, Page 3

Ministerial elbow for Rural Bank director

PATTRICK SMELLIE,

in Wellington

The Government’s privatisation programme is in trouble again with yesterday’s shock sacking of a Rural Bank director, Ms Jenny Morel.

Ms Morel believes she was sacked from the three-member interim board because she refused to accept the corporation’s halfyearly accounts at a board meeting earlier this month.

There had been insufficient information provided with the accounts to judge their adequacy, she said. Ms Morel told “The Press” last evening that she appeared to have been “given the push” for doing no more than her job as a director. Her departure from the board was announced in a statement by the Minister of State-Owned Enterprises, Mr Rodger, yesterday morning. But at that time, Ms Morel did not know she was off the board. The announcement focused on the resignation of the bank’s chairman, Mr Ken MacDonald, who is to join a farmers’ consortium that will try to buy the bank. In the statement, Mr Rodger said he was “extremely satisfied” with the progress of the sale. The sacking showed the Government was trying to sell the Rural Bank too quickly and trying to stifle opposition, the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Bolger said.

“It looks like the Government is heading towards another Bank of New Zealand shambles,” he said.

Ms Morel said she had known Mr Rodger “preferred me to leave the board.” “I didn’t know he had decided to push the issue before I saw this morning’s press statement,” she said.

She had sought an immediate meeting with Mr Rodger, where she was told there were personal differences on the board. “The Minister told me that he wanted a harmonious board going into the sale process.”

The only area of friction she was aware of was her refusal to sign off the corporation’s half-yearly accounts.

The accounts were likely to form part of the bank’s information memorandum on which potential buyers would base expressions of interest, she said.

“I was never opposed to the sale,” she said. “I was doing my job as a board member.” Ms Morel is a private sector financial consultant with extensive merchant-banking experience. Her membership of the board of

the Railways Corporation is up for review at the end of this month. Mr MacDonald refused to discuss the sacking last evening, saying it was a maatter between Mr Rodger and Ms Morel.

He would not say whether a recommendation that she be removed from the board had been made by other directors. He had understood that she was resigning, but would not discuss relations on the board. The issue was “no big deal,” he said. Mr Rodger could not be contacted for comment last evening. Ms Morel is to be replaced by Mrs Bronwyn Monopoli of Nelson. Mr MacDonald will be replaced by Mr John Shortt of Tuakau, after a transition period during which the information memorandum for potential bidders will be completed. Mr MacDonald is joining the bid being mounted by a former Federated Farmers president, Sir Peter Elworthy. Mr MacDonald is himself a former treasurer of Federated Farmers, and was appointed to the interim board of the Rural Bank last August to help prepare the bank for sale.