Christchurch City Council chief executive Tony Marryatt has been cleared of any conflict of interest over his role at an insurance company.
An inquiry by the Auditor-General has found Mr Marryatt acted appropriately by excluding himself from decisions about the council's insurance cover after he became a director of Civic Assurance in March 2008.
Mr Marryatt says he is unsurprised at the findings and now just wants to get on with his job. He says that while he consented to the matter being taken to the Auditor General by a councillor, Tim Carter, he feels affronted he wasn't taken at his word.
The Auditor-General says the council needs to have better arrangements for managing Mr Marryatt's involvement in decisions about insurance matters.
A vocal critic of the council, Peter Lynch, says he believes the Auditor-General's office has treated the case far too lightly, and the Ombudsman should be called in to investigate the office.
