ACCA secret papers leak
Secret documents seen by Accountancy Age reveal the ACCA hierarchy’s deep-seated fears about the very real threat of Prem Sikka’s election last year to its council.
The leaked papers were prepared for vice-president Jim Waits’ unprofessional conduct disciplinary hearing next Monday after his anti-Sikka rant at last October’s egm. He claims ACCA council members backed his public outburst with words of support by letter and telephone.
The papers also reveal that even if Sikka’s radical egm motions (one of which recommended halving ACCA chief executive Anthea Rose’s salary) were passed, ACCA was under no obligation to amend its bye-laws. In the event, all his proposals were soundly defeated.
Rose notes in her confidential memo: ‘Professor Sikka may be elected on this occasion. Council would then be faced with the problem that it would cease to be a body of people which acts collectively in the manner of a board to provide leadership and stewardship of the executive running of ACCA but would become a political debating chamber.’
Sikka failed by a large margin to win a council seat last May.
The six-page memo on Sikka, submitted as a confidential annex, forms a key part of a 150-page document relating to Waits’ outburst. The retired Worcester Health Authority chief executive resigned and tried to leave the association but was not allowed to until a disciplinary committee examined his case.
Despite admitting a ‘serious error of judgement’, Waits vigorously defends his actions in letters to ACCA by refusing to accept his conduct was ‘unprofessional’.
He calls on ACCA to include its full ‘Sikka files’ and to disregard ‘inaccurate, and probably libellous’ newspaper reports. Waits insists: ‘My actions have at all times been made in the best interests of ACCA as I saw them.’
ACCA director Anthony Booth told Accountancy Age: ‘It’s inevitable that any organisation that’s being criticised discusses and reviews how it might address that threat. We can’t comment in advance, but we’re disappointed that confidential documents have been leaked.’
