Allegations of "serious and continuing irregularities" within the management structure of the Show Jumping Association of Ireland have prompted the Equestrian Federation to call for an immediate report on the financial situation within the SJAI, increasing concerns that the Irish Sports Council could again withhold funding for show jumping.
The association's three-man finance committee, which issued a five-page report on the problems at a specially convened meeting of the SJAI executive last week, resigned after stating that they had been put in an untenable position due to the continuing irregularities.
The sums of money covered by the most recent report are said to be less than £20,000, "but it doesn't matter whether it's a million pounds or a penny, it's still the same thing", former finance committee member Dessie McFadden said yesterday.
The current financial revelations are said to involve discrepancies relating to travel agency invoices and payments, inflated entry fees claimed for a foreign pony international, a £2,600 trip to Verona, unreceipted entertaining expenses and a sum of £1,000 spent on prizes for an amateur show jumping fixture for which receipts have also not been returned.
Athlone solicitor Michael O'Sullivan, who is still retained as the association's legal adviser, resigned from the finance committee at the end of September and was then joined last week by chairman Tom Meagher and fellow committee member Dessie McFadden.
The committee's five-page report outlined problems within the management structure of the association, but without giving any specifics on the current financial difficulties. The report ended with the finance committee chairman Tom Meagher and committee member Dessie McFadden stating that they were resigning.
As a result of the resignations and subsequent media coverage, the Irish Sports Council contacted the Equestrian Federation at the beginning of this week, requesting information on the current state of affairs within the SJAI.
The federation's secretary general, Colonel Ned Campion, has responded by seeking "an immediate report on the situation" from the SJAI's national chairman Ado Kenny. It is hoped that his report will be given at a meeting of the federation's executive in Dublin next Monday.
This latest upheaval is not the first financial query to be raised in the SJAI. The association's 1997 accounts showed an apparent £200,000 deficit, resulting in the Irish Sports Council withholding its grant to the association last year until the SJAI had put its financial dealings in order.
The Sports Council finally released grant-aid of £61,000 to the SJAI two months ago following the announcement of an £86,000 profit for the year ended October 1999. But the association now has no finance committee, following the series of resignations after the issuing of the committee's most recent report.
The finance committee was elected at the end of January this year, with a specific brief to put financial structures in place that would guarantee above board dealings at all levels. However, the discovery of continuing irregularities, even on a minor scale, prompted the resignations of the three-man committee and the trio have all stated that they will not even stand for election to the executive committee next year.
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