‘No conflict of interest at Sport Wales’
An academic who chaired Sport Wales for six years has described an attempt to taint her with conflict of interest allegations as “mischief-making”.
Professor Laura McAllister, a former Wales international football player, headed the board of the sports umbrella body from 2010 until February 2016.
An audit report by accountants Deloitte, leaked to the BBC, concluded that Prof McAllister had complied with the organisation’s requirements in terms of declarations of interest.
Prof McAllister’s sister Fiona McAllister is managing director of Cardiff market research company Beaufort Research, which has won a number of contracts with Sport Wales.
Deloitte looked at four contracts worth a total of £71,000 that were awarded to Beaufort Research since 2011. The audit report said three out of four relevant tender evaluation forms could not be located, meaning Deloitte was unable to determine who was involved in assessing the tenders.
Deloitte described the lack of documentation as an oversight but said there was evidence that proper procedures were being followed. It added there was no evidence the chairwoman was involved in the decision-making process.
Prof McAllister had made some declarations of interest relating to her sister’s firm but later had not.
Sport Wales staff were only asked to declare interests of immediate family members, excluding brothers and sisters. Deloitte said Sport Wales may want to consider broadening the definition of immediate family members.
Deloitte also considered a £33,600 contract awarded in April 2016 to a firm called Unforgiving Minute to mentor Sport Wales staff. Sport Wales chief executive Sarah Powell emailed a director of Unforgiving Minute the tender specifications two days before it was sent to potential rivals.
Prof McAllister said: “For the first three years that I chaired Sport Wales I declared that Fiona was managing director of Beaufort, even though there was no space on the form for me to do so. Afterwards I discussed the issue with the finance and corporate director of the organisation, and was told it was unnecessary for me to refer to my sister’s directorship.
“As the Chair of Sport Wales, I had absolutely no involvement in the awarding of contracts any kind. It wasn’t something I got involved in at all and I didn’t even have knowledge of contracts being bid for. The narrative being pushed suggesting I may have had some kind of conflict of interest is just mischief-making by a senior individual at Sport Wales.”
The BBC reported that Deloitte’s audit report said: “There is a risk that the principle of transparency and fairness may be perceived to be undermined, resulting in reputational damage to Sport Wales if perceived conflicts of interest are not declared.”
A spokesman for Sport Wales, whose chair Paul Thomas and vice-chair Adele Baumgardt are currently suspended pending the investigation of unrelated concerns, said: “This report made a number of recommendations relating to the procurement of external consultants across the organisation and identified a number of areas where procedures could be improved.
“At no point in this report do Deloitte suggest any impropriety on the part of staff within Sport Wales.”