Senior RICS and former governing council members have signed a letter to president and governing council chair Ann Gray, urging her to explain her actions regarding the mass resignation of its standards and regulation board.
In the letter, seen by EG and dated 17 August, the authors asked Gray whether governing council knew about the letter she wrote in June to Dame Janet Paraskeva that triggered Paraskeva’s resignation, as well as whether she sought its approval for her actions.
Those signing the letter included former members of the body’s governing council in that same year, known as GC19. The letter was also circulated to all current governing council members.
“For those of us that went through the pain following the dismissal of the four management board non-execs in 2019 it is unsettling to see the dismissal and loss of people from important strategic roles within the RICS,” reads the letter.
It adds: “As you are fully aware, during 2019 a number of us were only informed that the four non-execs had been removed from post after the event and, despite requesting information from the then president, Chris Brooke, information was withheld. Having been through this and the similarities of the situation, you can see why we have concerns.”
It is understood that Gray has since responded by inviting the group to meet with senior RICS leaders including herself, new chief executive Justin Young, RICS board chair Martin Samworth, Lord Michael Bichard, senior vice president Justin Sullivan and senior governing council members to discuss the points raised.
However, some signatories have criticised the response as “circling the wagons” over a “simple yes [or] no question”.
One source, who did not wish to be named, said the group was acting in the best interests of the institution by “trying to avoid a repeat” of past events.
The letter highlighted excerpts from Alison Levitt QC’s report into the 2019 governance row, which discussed the implications of bypassing governing council on decisions.
Extracts included page 384, in which Levitt found “when it came to keeping GC informed, involved and consulted, the executive largely ignored it”.
The letter also quoted from page 392 of the review, which read: “The executive did not want GC to interfere in running the RICS because it made it difficult for them to do their job… I have the sense that various presidents and members of GC have known over the years that this is an issue which needs to be tackled, but there is little consensus as to the right way forward. The approach has been merely to tinker and tweak without engaging with the fundamental problem.”
A spokesperson for the RICS said: “The GC19 group is an important and well respected group. Having received correspondence from the group, RICS quickly offered an in-person meeting with them, the RICS leadership team plus members from GC, and we are awaiting date options to be agreed with them. We wanted to meet in-person as opposed to responding in writing so that we could answer their initial questions and then any follow-up in one session.”
To send feedback, e-mail pui-guan.man@eg.co.uk or tweet @PuiGuanM or @EGPropertyNews
