Four non-executives dismissed from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) have welcomed a report that concluded they were wrongly removed from the body.
Yesterday Alison Levitt QC described a “power struggle” at the crisis-hit body in which four members of the management board were ousted and “sound governance principles were not followed”.
Today, the four members - Amaarjit Atkar, Bruce McAra, Simon Hardwick and Steve Williams - have broken their silence to talk about the personal impact of the scandal and how they hope RICS will be strengthened by Levitt’s recommendations.
In a statement they said: “The prolonged period since our termination has been very difficult and worrying, both personally and professionally. We are pleased that the issues about which we first raised concerns in 2019 have now been accepted by the institution and that it has committed to making far reaching reforms to re-establish trust.”
They added: “We have not yet had an opportunity to read the whole report but are pleased to hear that Alison Levitt QC has concluded we were genuinely concerned about fulfilling our duties to RICS, which we took very seriously, and did not deserve the treatment to which we were subjected.
“We note her finding that we should receive a public apology, which we have been assured RICS will provide.
“We also note the comments by Nick McLean on behalf of the governing council that he considers our conduct was exemplary and that we were right and brave to raise the issues we did in the face of hostility.”
Levitt exonerated the four non-executives dismissed from the board and said they would have failed RICS if they had backed down.
As the report was published yesterday, a wave of top-brass resignations were announced. Chief executive Sean Tompkins, president Kath Fontana, interim governing council chair Chris Brooke and chair of the management board Paul Marcuse all stood down from their posts.
Amit Shah, the chair of the audit committee, has come to the end of his term.
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