Bad blood still boils at AOC

FORMER Australian Olympic Committee chief executive Fiona de Jong says she can’t accept AOC president John Coates’s attempts to distance himself from cultural problems in the organisation.

Coates on Thursday said he wasn’t responsible for the AOC’s cultural issues after a damning independent report detailed widespread workplace problems. Instead, Coates pointed the finger at former chief executives of the AOC, including de Jong.

“It’s convenient for the president to now blame those who have left the organis- ation,” de Jong said. De Jong announced her resignation as AOC chief executive last October but was a key player in bullying claims that surfaced this year.

She lodged a formal complaint of bullying against AOC media director Mike Tancred.

An independent committee heard de Jong’s claim and determined Tancred’s conduct fell short of bullying because it was not repetitive.

But the committee of three former judges found Tancred’s conduct amounted to “disreputable conduct” and he was reprimanded.

Tancred remains stood down from his job pending the outcome of other bullying claims against him that will be decided next week.

On Thursday, Coates said he wouldn’t quit as president despite an independent review of AOC workplace practices finding a dysfunctional culture tarred by fear, favouritism and open hostility.

De Jong said yesterday it was “disappointing and difficult to accept that the president can exclude himself from any responsibility for the culture ... and it is simply untrue for the president to deny knowledge of or involvement in this culture”.

She cited Coates’s apology for using the term “sheltered workshop” when referring to a staff member suffering cancer and said Coates “personally put in place a secret $120,000 bonus pay for Mr Tancred just one month after he was advised of a complaint” about the media director.