Conflict-of-interest questions swirl around Aanensen, Digicel

Conflict-of-interest questions are swirling around outgoing WICB CEO Bruce Aanensen's close ties to a private marketing company hired by Digicel to run coaching clinics around the Caribbean.

Aanensen, who was part of a WICB management team that pushed for the renewal of the Digicel sponsorship -- against the wishes of the board's own Finance and Audit Committee -- is listed as a director and 25% shareholder of All Sport Promotions Limited, a private Trinidad & Tobago concern that has been handling promotional and marketing work for Digicel for more than a year.

However, in an interview with CaribbeanCricket.com, All Sport Promotions boss Tony Harford said Aanensen resigned as a company director and divested his shares in the company just before taking up the CEO job with the WICB.

"Once he accepted the job of WICB CEO, he instructed that he be relieved of his shares and new directors named. This was handled by our company's lawyer, Mr. Winston Thompson. We have a new board," Harford said.

He said Marguerite Aanensen retired from All Sport six years ago and is no longer involved "except on the rare occasion when we ask her to help with a project." During the recent Digicel cricket coaching clinics, Mrs Aanensen organised and managed the Antigua leg.

Harford dismissed suggestions that Aanensen's links to the company could be perceived as a conflict of interest. "We have been doing work for Digicel since the Shell Caribbean [Football] Cup last September. When Bruce took the WICB job, he resigned as director and divested his shares. He has no stake in the company," Harford added.

Harford said Digicel was introduced to All Sport Promotions by Trinidad & Tobago football executive Jack Warner to help market its events around the Caribbean and insisted that Aanensen's day-to-day involvement with All Sport Promotions was almost non-existent.

Aanensen was also hired by Warner to serve as manager of Trinidad & Tobago's football team at the World Cup finals in Germany.

AANENSEN DEFENDS HIS NAME

Aanensen himself argues that his links to All Sport Promotions does not in any way represent a conflict -- even if he presided over the last stages of the WICB's negotiations with Digicel and actually used All Sport Promotions to arrange and conduct Ken Gordon's last press conference as WICB president.

In an interview with CaribbeanCricket.com, Aanensen said it was "mischievous" to suggest that he had an interest in seeing Digicel renew its sponsorship agreement with the WICB.

"I don't see where the conflict is. I resigned from All Sport and divested my holdings before I took this job. I did it because I didn't want to be faced with any conflict of interest questions. All Sport was already talking to Ken Gordon about some of the WICB's business ... I didn't want to be in a position of conflict," Aanensen said.

He said his All Sport association was known to Ken Gordon but did not say if the matter was disclosed to the full board.

"What does All Sport doing business with Digicel have to do with my work as WICB CEO?" he asked. "I had no stake in All Sport when I represented the WICB in discussions with Digicel."

Aanensen also denied that he pushed aggressively for the board to extend the Digicel deal. "When I came in to the WICB in April, the thing was almost 80 percent done. I wasn't pushing for anything. I came in at the tailend and followed the president's directive to get it wrapped up before he left office in July," he explained.

He said the WICB's executive committee [six regional board presidents plus Ken Gordon and Val Banks] voted 8-0 to accept the secretariat's recommendation to sign the contract extension. "This thing was already approved 8-0. I didn't vote for it, the board presidents did. I don't have a vote."

THE FINANCE COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS

Others are telling a different story. When the executive committee met to discuss Digicel, it considered two documents -- one from Aanensen's staff outlining the benefits of renewal and a six-point plan laid out by the finance committee to essentially see out the existing contract and test the market when the deal expired.

The finance committee -- which was installed by Ken Gordon as an oversight committee -- had several key recommendations. Among them:

Digicel should be asked to account for monies deducted from the sponsorship payments made to WICB (e.g. Digicel Player Fund and the Acquisition of Overseas Broadcast Rights); A cut down in staff turnover at Digicel to avoid misinterpretation of clauses within the contract; The two sides should set up clear rules on arbitration to deal with disagreements.

The committee -- which includes two accountants who co-wrote the Lucky Report (Gregory Georges and Avondale Thomas) -- also argued strongly that the increase in the sponsorship being proposed may be inadequate.

The committee's belief was that the market should be test.

More importantly, the committee felt it was out of place for Ken Gordon to renew the Digicel deal just as he was leaving office.

It felt that major decisions like contract renewals or extensions should be handled by a new administration that will have to manage and take responsibility for the consequences of those decisions.

FALLING ON DEAF EARS

This bit of advice fell on deaf ears. At the same AGM where Julian Hunte was elected to replace Gordon, the outgoing president used a casting vote clinch a slim majority. The final vote from the 17-member board of directors was 4-4 before Gordon broke the deadlock.

When the vote was taken, several directors were absent, including Guyana's Chetram Singh and Jamaica's Jackie Hendricks, two long-time board members who were on flights back home because the Digicel matter stretched into the night.

For his part, Aanensen doesn't understand the fuss from certain directors about the Digicel extension. "All the board members had every opportunity to ask questions or clarify anything they wanted about the contract. If they were negligent in raising their concerns, that is not my business."

Asked if the contracts were distributed to WICB directors before the vote at the AGM, Aanensen said that no one asked for them. "We had the contracts to give to them to go over line-by-line but no one asked for them."

Aanensen, who offered his resignation in protest of what he views as "abuse" by vice president Dave Cameron insists everything was above board. In his letter to WICB president Julian Hunte, Aanensen wrote:

The accusations regarding the signing of the Digicel contract continue unabated, notwithstanding the fact that two legal opinions and one from an expert in the field of corporate governance have all indicated that the proper procedures have been followed for the approval of the contract. Additionally, when the presentation on the matter was made to the Executive and later to the board, there was ample opportunity for directors to ask whatever questions they wished, and /or to ask for whatever additional information they required. In both instances the CEO answered all questions posed. The chairman of both meetings put the matter to the vote on each occasion and the approval of the board was obtained.

For the Vice President to continue to interrogate the executives about this contract and the presentation made to the board and attempt to discredit the management team is simply not acceptable to me, and I have told him as much. If directors did not exercise due care in the approval of this contract, then let the directors accept that and do the honorable thing. The executives have no authority in the approval of contracts and cannot be held accountable for any shortcomings in this regard.

This latest brouhaha exposes the sharp division that still exists within the WICB and underscores the need for full disclosure to avoid conflict-of-interest questions, whether real or perceived.