Bruce Aanensen's resignation letter

This is the full text of a letter sent by WICB chief executive Bruce Aanensen to president Julian Hunte:

Hi Julian,

Please see the attached letter for your attention. I have always lived my life with high standards of honesty, integrity and respect for my fellow man. Sadly, some directors do not embrace these values.

I find it very difficult to relate to people who are disrespectful to others at every opportunity. I also find it difficult to enforce ethical standards with our staff when directors openly disregard these ethics with no consequences. Where moral values are concerned, I make no compromise. It is against this background that I felt that I had little choice but to make the decision I did.

Dear Julian,

Let me say that I am distinctly uncomfortable with the two decisions made by you relative to the CWC 2007 contracts for the following reasons.

1) I am not sure that the president has the authority to make these decisions without board approval since the WICB may face litigation which could be very costly and we were advised by our attorneys not to pay without getting all 15 contracts signed. Additionally, in so far as the payment of match fees are concerned, there was never any agreement to pay match fees in addition to the amounts agreed by the arbitrators. The contracts signed by the players do not make provision for match fees and are the binding legal documents by which we must be guided.

2) During your office visit we discussed and agreed on a course of action to alleviate any financial problems that some players may be experiencing, and we agreed on the content of two letters which have been sent to WIPA for their concurrence. This decision flies in the face of the reasons for these letters. This decision will also significantly undermine the credibility of the secretariat in all future dealings with WIPA.

3) These decisions are compromising my professional integrity in that if I refuse to carry out the instructions of the President, I will expose myself to possible dismissal. If I do and litigation along with the amount of match fees being suggested significantly affects the finances of the board,I will be charged by the board with carrying out an instruction from the President for which he had no board approval. Either way I am wrong.

Julian, as I mentioned to you when you first assumed the job, I am far from comfortable in this environment. This must be the only CEO position where there is no authority to act. From hiring a physiotherapist to appointing a team manager has to be approved by the board. In addition to this, I have been subjected to abuse and have been wrongly charged with all kinds of misbehavior by two Directors of the Board who when instructed by the board to apologise, have not done so.

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.

Additionally, it was my duty to advise Mr. Gordon that Director Shillingford was in breach of the Board's Code of Ethics by refusing to comply with a Court Order to pay EC$15,000 legal fees to the Board. Mr. Shillingford continues to defy both the Court Order and the order of the Board to pay and no action has been taken.

In view of all of the above, it is apparent that it would be mutually beneficial to the Board and myself, if we were to part ways at this time. In the circumstances I would hereby submit my resignation. I ask that you consider accepting my resignation effective August 31st 2007 without my being subject to the penalty clause in my contract as regards notice, having regard to the circumstances under which same is being submitted.

If it is the decision of the Board, that the clause be invoked then I am prepared to have the effective date of my resignation be November 2007. I truly regret that events have taken this turn, through no fault of mine. I consider this state of affairs to be unfortunate. It goes without saying that I leave without rancour and bear no grudges against anyone. I do wish you all the best in your tenure as President and hope that you would have better success than I did at the Board. I await your decision as regards the effective date of my resignation.

Yours in West Indies Cricket

Bruce Aanensen,
CEO