Waipounamu Contracting ran for more than two decades out of Riversdale in northern Southland. It did not fail because work dried up or a big project went bad. It failed because the one person legally running it was gone, and nothing was in place to carry on without him.
The agricultural contractor was placed into liquidation on 29 September by special resolution of shareholders, after co-owner and sole director Mark Sanson died in September aged 60. It owes creditors $9.927 million, with an estimated deficit of $4.259 million. Creditors, the ODT reports, have little hope of seeing their money.
This is a personal tragedy for a well-known Southland family. It is also a governance lesson that a lot of New Zealand…