A Concise Account of the ICU CEO Suspension & Related Issues

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Seanie
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A Concise Account of the ICU CEO Suspension & Related Issues

Post by Seanie » Fri Apr 08, 2011 8:02 am

ICU Investigation
Before Christmas 2010 the Irish Canoe Union/ Canoe Ireland Treasurer undertook a review of corporate governance and audit procedures. The Directors of the ICU (Eamon Devoy - President & Karl Dunne - Honorary Secretary) took legal advice on the information received from the Treasurer, Noel Tallon, and were advised to set up an independent investigation and to suspend with pay and without prejudice Michael Scanlon, the Chief Executive of Canoeing Ireland (also known as Irish Canoe Union Limited) with immediate effect.

An Independent Investigation was undertaken into the matters of concern and the Chief Executive along with his legal advisor.

The issues under investigation were that Michael Scanlon Chief Executive created and pre-dated a document purporting to be a contract of employment for himself in November 2006. He confirmed that he pre-dated the contract document to the 1st January 2005 and that both he and Brendan O’Connell (a former president until May 2005) had signed it. Included in the document created was a new salary arrangement implemented from the 1st January 2006 that aligned his salary to a public Sector pay scale. This had the effect of increasing his annual salary from around €56,000 to €65,000. In addition, other benefits including two pensions schemes one 100% funded by the ICU and another 98.65% funded by the ICU and VHI at Plan E was also fully funded by the ICU.

Michael Scanlon confirmed that he did this without the knowledge or consent of the President, the Executive Committee or the Board of the ICU.

Supporter's of the CEO have stated that the actions undertaken by the CEO have been of a significant net gain to the Canoe Union, as he did not take annual raises he was contractually due since 1998.

High Court Case
The Chief Executive Micheal Scanlon declined to attend a meeting of the Boards Sub-committee and has instead sought an injunction before the High Court against the Irish Canoe Union Ltd.

The ICU cannot discuss or disclose any additional information relation to this issue until such time as the process established by the Board and or the High Court action initiated by the Chief Executive is complete.

Reaction and Timeline
15 February 2011
Weeks before the High Court injunction, several clubs around the country were contacted contacted by a group of interested parties seeking to call an ICU EGM and they proposed two motions for that EGM.
( Click Here )

31 March 2011
A statement on behalf of the Directors of the Irish Canoe Union was sent to all affiliated clubs and Discipline Committees.
( Click Here )

5 April 2011
The group of interested parties issued a formal response to ICU statement.
( Click Here )

6 April 2011
ICU Board Meeting held and a letter sent to the 10 clubs that have requested an EGM
( Click Here )

3 May 2011
ICU Board Statement 2, sent to all clubs.
( Click Here )

13 May 2011
Michael Scanlon the CEO of the Irish Canoe Union Ltd failed to get a High Court order restraining ICU from conducting a disciplinary hearing arising from findings of the investigation.
( Click Here )

19 May 2011
ICU Board Statement 3, sent to all clubs.
( Click Here )

13 May 2011
The Hight court judgement is published.
( Click Here )

25 May 2011
Resignation of Canoe Ireland National Training Officer, Conor Ryan

26 May 2011
"Urgent Update from Concerned ICU Members"
( Click Here )

29 June 2011
The ICU Board by a unanimous decision of the members participating in the vote took a decision to dismiss ICU CEO.

30 June 2011
A letter of dismissal that was sent to the ICU CEO.

4 Oct 2011
The ISC Appeals Officer, Mr. Ray McGee of the Irish Sports Council published his decision.
( PDF - Click Here )

17 Oct 2011
The ICU Executive Committee sends a draft of the General Manager Role Specification & Job Advertisement.

20 Oct 2011
A new ICU General Manager role is created - "Rush to hire a General Manager for the ICU"
( Click Here )

27 Oct 2011
An ICU EGM notice email was sent out to affiliated clubs. It included a board report that has a background timeline of events that lead to the dismissal of the ICU CEO and the "Decision of Mr. Ray McGee" the Irish Sports Council appointed appeals officer.
( Click Here )

26 Nov 2011
The ICU AGM was held at the Clarion Hotel, Liffey Valley, Dublin.

14 Mar 2012
Canoe Ireland Executive Committee member and Irish Canoe Union LTD Secretary, Karl Dunne is hired as Canoe Ireland's General Manager.
( Click Here )

12 Dec 2012
"Resignation of President and Executive of Canoeing Ireland"
( Click Here )

24 Dec 2012
"ICU/ Canoeing Ireland – Board Statement Dec 2012" - The remaining members of the ICU board issue a statement and appoint two new directors to ICU LTD in the wake of the resignation of President and Executive of Canoeing Ireland.
( Click Here )

14 Jan 2013
"ICU/ Canoeing Ireland – Board Statement Jan 2013" - The remaining members of the ICU board issue a statement, that they will move forward the ADM to Saturday 9th March 2013 rather than hold an EDM.
( Click Here )

7 March 2013
"ICU Board postpones the ADM/EDM" - The agenda and motions were not sent in advance to clubs and members, so the board has opted to postpone for a month, until April 20th 2013.
( Click Here )

Notes:
- I’ve tried to keep this account as neutral and short as possible. Its made up from documents sent to me and from statements made public. If you think I have made any errors, or think its biased or its missing something. Please send me an email at [email protected] or post a message below. I would appreciate your help improving this post.

- ICU (Irish Canoe Union), Irish Canoe Union LTD. and CI (Canoe Ireland) are used interchangeably throughout, due to the confusion over the organization name and the company name.

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Seanie
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Re: A Concise Account of the ICU CEO Suspension & Related Is

Post by Seanie » Fri Dec 21, 2012 8:21 am

Given the resignations from the ICU Executive in the last week I've looked back over some of the posts and documents from the last two years and I've added a number of new points to the timeline above that were missing.

Something struck me when I was reading the Board Report that the ICU president at the time wrote. It was not stated that this was a select summary of Mr McGee's decision and that the ICU's summary was also missing any criticism of the ICU executive and board from the original findings.

The appeal decision document was not public at the time so I assume that club representatives might have also believed that this document contained the full "Decision of Mr. Ray McGee Irish Sports Council", as it was titled in the document.

Here are the two documents;
- ISC Appeal Decision - Appeals Officer Mr. Ray McGee - 4 Oct 2011 [pdf]
- ICU Board Report - 27 Oct 2011 [pdf]

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