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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
14 December-January 2014
F
LOPPY-haired RIAI president
Robin Mandal recently wrote to
members expressing his exasper-
ation at allegations of impropriety and
misgovernance at the Royal Institute of
the Architects of Ireland (RIAI). “I am
genuinely at a loss to understand how
there could be even a perception of lack
of appropriate governance at the RIAI
and, in particular, a claim by a director
who resigned that Council ‘have been
unwilling to address properly very seri-
ous matters of governance’”. Mandal
provocatively put the resignations down
to a failure of the six to “get their way” on
policy change.
He also addressed concerns raised
about the RIAI’s finances – the 2013
accounts show a deficit of €480,000
before tax on an operating income of
€2.9m: “It is worth noting that the
Institute’s independent Auditors, BDO,
are on record as stating that the RIAI’s
internal financial controls exceed that
required/expected from an organisation
of the scale of the RIAI. Notwithstanding
this, I have prioritised a governance
review to ensure we are operating to
best practice, work of [sic] which is
ongoing”.
Eoin O’Cofaigh, a disenfranchised and
irritable ex-President (1998-9) of the
RIAI, had complained about the payment
without any tender process of €500,000
to Bluebloc digital, a company 50%
owned by Odran Graby, son of veteran
RIAI Chief Executive John Graby. “None
of us want a Rehab, a Positive Action, a
DSCPA situation”, O’Cofaigh wrote to the
board before resigning. With six others.
After a failed mediation process with the
RIAI executive.
So what is going on in this Royal
Institute?
It seems a lot of the fuss is down to per-
sonalities and the economy. O’Cofaigh
was a particularly thoughtful president,
promoting architecture over architects,
but he has been the most prominent
member of an RIAI “reform group”
campaigning against an amendment to
building control regulations, which make
it mandatory on beleaguered architects
to certify that new buildings comply.
There is a perception that the executive
of the RIAI is perhaps more established
than some of the economically trauma-
tised younger members for whom the
additional regulatory and insurance bur-
den has seemed like the last straw.
However, this onerous imposition is
a side issue in the debate over propri-
ety. What clouds the issue for outsiders
is that the likes of O’Cofaigh and another
prominent resignee, former president
Joan O’Connor – a favourite architect
of Treasury Holdings and boomtime
member of the Docklands Authority, are
scarcely callow nobodies.
The executive has always preferred to
lobby the government behind the scenes
on the Regulations issue and indeed the
Council voted at its November meet-
ing against seeking revocation of the
amendment – but rather for its own
amendment.
The Council of the RIAI – which ‘gov-
erns’ it has 26 members, not untypical
for a company limited by guarantee and
one of the mechanisims whereby the effi-
cacy of NGOs is diminished. Governing
bodies of this size are set up to fracture,
for cabals to champion particular per-
sonalities and employees, and for gossip
and leaks. It cannot be assumed that it
serves the public interest for all deci-
sions and information of the executive
body led by the CEO, to be shared with
the cumbrous council. Pleas to the gal-
lery that financial information isn’t fully
forthcoming resonate but may in fact not
be reasonable.
Perhaps reflecting the clumsiness
of the governance through Council –
which is in fact the board of directors,
the CEO, John Graby, appears to have
been invested with too many, sometimes
conflicting, powers. For example he is
the conduit for complaints against RIAI
architects but also an architect himself
– a clear conflict. It is also bad practice to
expect the chief executive to pursue com-
plaints against those who pay his salary.
And undesirable that he is Director of an
architects’ insurance company which
needs to get sensitive information about
the members who pay his salary.
It seems to be the case that Frank
McDonald, veteran Irish Times envi-
ronment correspondent, whose waning
ecological attentions have long had
a focus on architecture and archi-
tects, is close to some of the gang of
six. Their resignations were reported
on the Irish Times website before they
were announced to the Council at its 4
November egm. Mandal claims he was
“shocked” when he first heard about the
resignations from the journalist “before
I had a chance to see it myself”. It is not
recorded if Mandal regards it as shocking
that he had lunch with the same journal-
ist that day.
As to the substance of the allegations,
it is certainly unusual that BDO signed
off on accounts although the treasurer,
Garrett O’Neill, had not been willing to
approve them when issues were raised
before the AGM in September about the
propriety of the CEO not divulging his
salary, but sometimes honorary offic-
ers in voluntary councils can be more
squeamish than the hard-nosed corpo-
rate accounting fraternity. BDO claimed
not to have been aware of the Treasurer’s
concerns before the AGM but contorted
to suggest that a Governance Review
should be carried out as a priority.
O’Cofaigh opposed such a move.
The six resignees had requested that
Hayes solicitors (the RIAI’s legal advi-
sors) and BDO be present but it turned
out that the request was not forwarded.
This precipitated the resignations.
But no illegality proved against architects’
body. By Michael Smith
Hackles RIAIsed
NEWS RIAI
It seems a lot
of the fuss
is down to
personalities
and the
economy
“
December-January 2014 15
It sounds like a reasonable request but
it may have been unnecessary, an avoid-
able cost for the struggling RIAI. In any
event a meeting was scheduled between
the reform group and the professional
advisors, but the reform group declined
to attend it since it was only proposed
after they resigned.
Former President, Joan O’Connor,
resigned because the council had “failed
in its responsibilities” to ensure that the
inst it ut e wa s “s olvent , wel l-r un a nd de liv-
ering the outcomes for which it is set up;
and repeated requests” from individual
council members for “essential financial
information” about the institute’s affairs
had been met by “hostile questioning of
the motives of the authors”,
President Robin Mandal – who
became president after television pre-
senter Duncan Stewart’s candidacy was
ruled out on a technicality – said Ms
O’Connor’s claims were “utter nonsense”
and that the institute had €2.9 million
in the bank. Another of the resignees
wrote to Council, after the resignations
and the November meeting noting: “I had
no option but to resign in order to protect
members’ interests. Prior to resigning I
sought to put down a marker of where I
thought there were ‘irregularities’ in how
the RIAI was being run. Unfortunately a
majority of Directors did not share these
concerns and on legal advice I was told I
should resign as to remain as a Director
in such circumstances makes one com-
plicit in any ‘irregularities’.
The letter refers to the resignee having
received legal training and advice from
a big law firm but when it comes to it it is
unlikely any lawyer would recommend
resignation – as opposed to continuing
efforts to increase compliance - on the
back of the deficiencies outlined by the
reform group. The letter finishes, “I hope
that helps to clarify my decision at least
and that my decision to resign had noth-
ing to do with “not getting my own way”
[the Regulations]”.
Bluebloc has received €500,000 in
fees over five years for computer serv-
ices, without having to go through
anything as pedantic as a tender proc-
ess. Furthermore the sum seems at the
upper end of the scale for shat would be
expected for an institute for architects,
even if the website does have 200,000
un iq ue u ser a nnu al ly. Concer ns h ave b een
raised about an RIAI sister company,
RIAI Insurance services limited, the
beneficial ownership of which remains
unclear to members and former directors
apparently, though Mandal has clarified
that it does not remunerate the RIAI
nominees on its board. Embarrassingly
Mandal designed an extension to Graby’s
house before becoming President.
Damningly, the RIAI had no procure-
ment policy up and until late November
2014.
Robin Mandal has suggested in corre-
spondence and indeed in an article in the
Sunday Times that Eoin O’Cofaigh him-
s el f e mp lo ye d Bl ue blo c D i g it a l , a co mp a ny
part owned by son of CEO Odran Graby.
But this is not true. Bluebloc Digital was
incorporated in 2003, four years after
O’Cofaigh wrapped up his presidency.
There is another company, Blue Bloc,
owned by Margaret Graby and Odran
Graby, wife and son of CEO John. Mr
Mandal must be getting confused. The
RIAI has said there’d been no direct
involvement between John Graby and
the company over the last four years.
Bluebloc digital provides services for
a number of companies including the
Construction Industry Federation and
Homebond of which John Graby’s brother
in law is a director. The agendas of these
organisations overlaps with the role of
the RIAI – for example Homebond has
a clear vested interest in the certifica-
tion Regulation being maintained, and
it might be said that the crossover poses
possible conflicts of interest, for John
Graby at least.
As with the Law Society CEO Ken
Murphy it’s not at all clear how much
Graby is paid, though the President said
his salary has been benchmarked with
comparable bodies and found to be in
the lower range. A remuneration com-
mittee has been meeting annually but
appears not to have reached a decision on
the 2014 salary. The CEO had refused to
divulge his income from the RIAI to the
board and treasurer, though it appears
he may now have divulged it to the treas-
urer – and it is agreed annually with
the President. The honorary secretary
informed members that “it” (whatever it
was) has not changed in five years except
that it was decreased by 10%.
The RIAI receives €1m in taxpayer
funds (OPW) to administer an employ-
ment scheme for graduate training on
behalf of the OPW but receives no core
government funding.
The Southern Region representative
on the Council summarises the issue well
in a recent letter to the Council: “Should
there be irrefutable proof of their accu-
sations this should have been tabled at
council. If there remains irrefutable
proof or concerns of malpractice this
should be passed to the Gardaí. They
did not and are unable to do this, and
consequently have resorted to publicly
discrediting the institute. As such this
only reinforces my opinion that this is
muck slinging politics – but to what end
and to what purpose remains a mystery”.
And comments the representative made
about Vivian Cummins of the reform
group in a letter to RIAI Southern Region
members have prompted a stand-off,
with the representative now consulting
a solicitor and Cummins demanding
retraction of “a dozen key points which,
in my opinion, were factually incorrect
as they relate to me”. •
daggers
Kathryn Meghen, RIAI Asistant Director; former
Minister Jimmy Deenihan, RIAI President Robin
Mandal and RIAI Director John Graby
Damningly, the
RIAI had no
procurement
policy up
and until late
November
2014
“
