Members of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) are calling on the crisis-hit body to make public the findings of an independent review into its treasury management audit.
Pressure is mounting on RICS to release the review conducted by Alison Levitt QC, who last week delivered the 400-page report to the chair of the Steering Committee of the Governing Council of RICS.
Neil Sinclair, chief executive of listed REIT Palace Capital, told Property Week: “I want to see it complete and in full. I want to know as a member why I shouldn’t see it. We footed the bill for this, and we’re members. They’re not entitled to tell us what we can and can’t see.”
One senior RICS source added: “It’s going to have to be released at some point. The question is: how much of the report will be put out?”
It is understood there are three versions of the report – an ‘open’, ‘closed’ and ‘executive summary’, and it is not yet clear which of the three will be publicised.
The 153-year-old institution has been engulfed in a governance crisis since allegations emerged in The Sunday Times late last year that four directors were dismissed in 2019 for raising the alarm over a 2018 BDO financial report.
At the end of January, RICS bowed to industry pressure and announced a plan for a review, which is being overseen by Levitt, who has investigated the events that led to the dismissal of the four directors.
Levitt has advised the Steering Committee that the members of Governing Council should take time to consider her report before deciding what action to take in relation to it.
A spokesperson for RICS said: ”The Governing Council of RICS is now in receipt of the Independent Review delivered by Alison Levitt QC and is in the process of carefully considering its findings and recommendations. We will issue a formal response once this process has concluded.”
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