Non-Voting Board Members feedback
Minutes:
The Chair asked the Chief Executive for feedback on the SAC/CC on the Board decision with regards to taking legal action against the former Trust solicitors, which the SAC had requested in 2011. Duncan Wilson provided the following response:
At its meeting on 6 November 2012 the Board of APPCT considered advice specifically commissioned from its new solicitors on the question as to whether any legal action should be taken against its former solicitors, in respect of decisions taken in 2006 and 2007 on the Firoka project. Following careful consideration of that advice the Board resolved not to take any action, on the basis that the former solicitors had given advice strictly in accordance with their remit and could not be held more widely accountable for those decisions taken by the Board.
Jacob O’Callaghan, who had first raised this (among other questions to the Board) responded – he first said how pleased he was with the success of the HLF bid and it was unfortunate that the answer from the Board had been so long in coming. He noted that the previous Trust solicitor’s explanation was apparently (according to the Walklate report) that he had, in fact, notified the General Manager (Keith Holder) of the risks of the licence to Firoka, and that therefore Mr Holder and the Chairman (Charles Adje) could and should have acted to protect the charity. Whatever the truth was, lessons should have been leaned from this whole sorry experience.
David Liebeck commented that he was pleased to see the extent to which the committee’s discussion had moved on from the time when lawyers were called upon to attend meetings – he went on to thank Jacob for his efforts in pursuing this matter.
Nigel Willmott disagreed with Jacob O’Callaghan for pursuing with this and urged that these matters should now be put aside to allow the Palace to take advantage of the opportunities which now presented themselves.
The Chair concurred with the need to put these matters aside, which he thought was the consensus view, and closed the discussion on that point.