ACCA accused of breaching royal charter

ACCA accused of breaching royal charter

The Queen has been asked to exercise her ‘moral and legalduties by launching an investigation into a number of alleged abuses of ACCA’s royal charter.

Labour backbench MP Austin Mitchell, who claims he is acting on behalf of ACCA members unwilling to raise their heads for fear of retribution, sent a 20-page petition to the Queen last month, detailing more than a dozen alleged charter breaches.

ACCA, which this week reported a 14.2% growth in membership, refused to comment on Mitchell’s petition except to say all the allegations are old. Mitchell’s allegations include an attack on ACCA’s delegated proxy voting system, closed council meetings and standards of ethnic monitoring. A considerable portion of the document is devoted to detailing the verbal abuse which ACCA vice-president Jim Waits directed at dissident member Prem Sikka at October 1996’s egm.

In his concluding remarks Mitchell says: ‘The evidence shows that ACCA needs to secure greater openness and democracy in its affairs.’

Sikka, who confirmed this week that he will not be seeking election to ACCA’s council in May, said: ‘This is the only avenue we have left. At least the Sovereign is being put on notice that one of her royal charter bodies is not behaving in an appropriate manner,’ he said.

A spokesman for the Queen said: ‘The Queen acts on the advice of ministers and the petition wil be sent to the relevant department.’

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