It's a case of "I told you so" from a medical trade union over a former DHB chief's excessive spending.

A State Services Commission report revealed $120,000 of Dr Nigel Murray's spending was unjustified.

The damning investigation into Dr Nigel Murray's spending shows the former Waikato District Health Board chief executive was stood down from his top job at a health authority in Canada months before he secured the role in Hamilton.

And the critical information was missed in checks by former DHB chairman Bob Simcock during Murray's recruitment to Waikato because Simcock did not ask Murray's former employer for a reference.

READ MORE: SFO to investigate health boss Nigel Murray's spending

Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director Ian Powell tried to raise the alarm bells earlier.

"It gives me no joy to say 'I told you so'. It is an extraordinary situation, and it's actually worse than I thought," Powell says.

He told Kate Hawkesby he's never known any previous chief executive, even those he had differences with, to abuse their position as much as Dr Murray.

"They are responsible people with their expenses. They are nowhere near the behaviour of Nigel Murray who's out there in splendid isolation on the continuum of inappropriate behaviour."

Murray was president and CEO at Fraser Health Authority in British Columbia when a Government-ordered review found the health authority to be the worst-performing in the country.

After the 1200-page report was released an incoming chairman to Fraser Health, Wynne Powell, told Murray the review identified "unsatisfactory and unacceptable issues", according to the State Services Commission inquiry investigator John Ombler.

Powell went on to tell Murray: "Fraser Health is experiencing substantive leadership issues that do not serve the authority's required outcomes nor assist the health system as a whole for British Columbia".

Powell told Murray his employment would terminate the next year, on November 27, 2015 but that effective immediately on May 29, 2014 Murray would no longer continue as president and chief executive of Fraser Health.

He was then recruited by New Zealand company Sheffield for the role at Waikato DHB, which paid $110,000 to the recruitment agency.

Simcock admitted yesterday that in hindsight it was a mistake not to check with Murray's direct employer at the time of the recruitment, a point Ombler said could have raised a red flag over Murray's suitability for the $560,000 a year role.

But Simcock defended his other checks saying he was never alerted to the fact Murray was effectively dismissed from his position.

- additional reporting, NZ Herald

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