Former RICS NEDs question ‘genuine contrition’ from wrongdoers

The four former non-executive directors found to be wrongfully dismissed at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in 2019 have welcomed the organisation’s public apology, but questioned the “genuine contrition” of the executive team involved in terminating their contracts. Former NEDs Amarjit Atkar, Simon Hardwick, Bruce McAra and Steve Williams jointly stated that the RICS’s formal public apology – made on behalf of the institution by interim governing council chair Nick Maclean last week – was an “important first step”. But the quartet said it was “difficult to accept it as a statement of genuine contrition from those responsible” when the apology “appears on RICS’s own website alongside the expressions of thanks from the chair contained in the resignation statements of Sean Tompkins, Chris Brooke and Kathleen Fontana, each of whom left office following publication of Alison Levitt QC’s report”. In the wake of Levitt’s damning 467-page report into the governance row, Tompkins stepped down from his role last month alongside governing council chair Brooke, chair of the management board Paul Marcuse and former president Fontana. Audit committee chair Amit Shah left after his term ended. Earlier this year, former chief executive Tompkins told EG he did not see the need to apologise for how RICS had been handling the situation. In the RICS’s formal apology, Maclean said the organisation believed “the way several of our executives, our officers and non-executives behaved” towards the NEDs was “unacceptable and indefensible”. Nonetheless, the four NEDs said their focus, “both then and now”, is to “discharge our responsibilities to the best of our abilities and to do the right thing for the institution we had been appointed to serve”. “We fully support the institution’s commitment to consistently embed its recently published values – including those of integrity and transparency,” said the NEDs. “As part of the process of re-establishing trust and confidence, these standards should be applied to all officers, members and external advisers in relation to past conduct, as well as in the future.” To send feedback, e-mail pui-guan.man@eg.co.uk or tweet @PuiGuanM or @EGPropertyNews Photo © Jeff Blackler/Shutterstock