It’s time for the board to go or regulators to step up to resolve the chaos at the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP). As another members’ meeting looms, Michael West reports on the critical governance breakdown and the latest whistleblower complaint.
“Chaotic”, is how a former director of the RACP describes it.
A Whistleblower Complaint to the regulators at ASIC – obtained by MWM – alleges “intense personal attacks” by RACP directors, governance breaches, potentially “unlawful” conduct by directors and interference in whistleblower complaints.
Governance disarray has long beset the College. This latest report by a former top-ranking doctor at the RACP precedes the present stoush between RACP directors and another governance whistleblower Dr Sharmilla Chandran, which spilled into Court a few weeks ago.
Chair Professor Jennifer Martin and her board are trying to eject Dr Chandran from the board. The latest Extraordinary General Meeting of members takes place at noon tomorrow.
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The 297 page whistleblower report, obtained by MWM, constitutes further damning evidence of governance failures at the RACP and highlights the need for regulators – both ASIC (corporate regulator) and ACNC (charities regulator) – to intervene if there is no resolution to the crisis.
“Given the systematic and persistent nature of the [directors’] misconduct, it defies belief that the best interests of the College is the primary motivation for these and related events or that they are random or isolated incidents,” concludes the report.
The battle for control of RACP, and efforts to clean up errant governance practices, have now been running for the better part of a decade. The report lodged with ASIC delves into a spate of questionable governance practices:
The report covers issues surrounding directors’ performance and “uncontested intense personal attacks”.
“I am submitting this Whistleblower report directly to ASIC due to repeated attempts of the RACP Board to interfere with the management of Whistleblower complaints including protection of Whistleblowers and on many occasions actively undermine or disregard legal advice.
“I document some examples of the bases for these concerns in the report. I am also forwarding it to ACNC as RACP regulator due to serious governance concerns.”
The whistleblower says chair Professor Martin, had played a significant role “in many of the serious matters that I consider amount to misconduct … I consider that the request from other Board directors can be viewed as specifically seeking to protect Jennifer Martin from proper and independent complaint management and investigation and the potential outcomes of these”.
“I consider that this Whistleblower report raises serious matters that point to an improper state of affairs, serious misconduct and potentially even corruption. Further, I also consider that ACNC governance standards have been breached by the RACP Board.”
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Michael West established Michael West Media in 2016 to focus on journalism of high public interest, particularly the rising power of corporations over democracy. West was formerly a journalist and editor with Fairfax newspapers, a columnist for News Corp and even, once, a stockbroker.