Bord na Mona officers reject report of management split

THE Bord na Mona chairman, Mr Pat Dineen, asked auditors to review the remuneration package of the chief executive, Mr Eddie O'Connor, according to a statement from company management yesterday. The review was completed about 10 days ago and has not yet been, considered by the company's board.

Mr Dineen has recently been appointed non executive chairman of Bord Na Mona.

According to Mr O'Connor the review of his salary arrangements was "absolutely routine". He told The Irish Times yesterday that Mr Dineen was "unhappy with the manner of its execution" in some respects. He wanted to organise it differently and have everything completely transparent. Mr Dineen did not want to comment on the issue yesterday, according to his spokesman.

Bord na Mona management issued a strong statement in response to a report in the Sunday Tribune which said there were deep divisions at management level and Government concern at the contents of a report on the company. The statement was issued in the name of Mr O'Connor, Mr Paddy Hughes, the chief operations officer, and Mr John Hourican, the finance director, and said they rejected totally any suggestions of a management split.

The statement went on to say the Sunday Tribune article must have been referring to the review by Price Waterhouse "of certain elements of the remuneration terms of the managing director Eddie O'Connor". It said that the review "simply sets out, in detail and without comment, elements of the managing director's package as agreed with the previous chairman, Brendan Halligan". It was intended to help Mr Dineen structure the package in future, the statement added.

Mr O'Connor said yesterday he could not discuss the figures in the review because they had not yet been presented to the board. His package had been agreed with Mr Halligan, he said, and included a number of elements such as salary, expenses and pension arrangements.

The last published Government review of semi state salaries in mid 1994 recommended that the managing director of Bord Na Mona receive £58,860 a year. Mr O'Connor said part of Mr Dineen's intention was "to remunerate me better than I am being remunerated at the moment" and probably to have the total package covered by a contract, as was the case in many other semi state companies.

The Bord na Mona management statement said the Sun day Tribune article was "clearly damaging" to Bord na Mona and was open to the clear interpretation that there are serious irregularities in the affairs" of the company. "We emphatically deny this," it added.

Mr John Hourican, the finance director, said that the company's procedures were tight and there was no question of anyone being paid through expenses in place of taxable salary.

The chairman wanted to sort out "procedures and practices", he said, and was anxious to have a clear statement on this issue and on "what is allowable and what is not allowable".

The former chairman, Mr Brendan Halligan, who recruited Mr O'Connor to Bord na Mona, said yesterday he did not wish to comment. A Government spokesman also declined comment.