No conflict of interest on stadium says IRFU president

Barry Keogh, the president of the IRFU, and the Lansdowne Road Stadium Development Company have both strongly asserted that there is no conflict of interest arising from Keogh McConnell Spence - the quantity surveyors' company of which Keogh is chairman - being part of a consortium tendering for the project management contract for the redevelopment of Lansdowne Road.

Both Keogh and the LRSDC have stated that on foot of the tender documents being issued last November, the IRFU president wrote to the union's chief executive Philip Browne declaring his company's interest in becoming part of one of the consortiums bidding for the project management contract and that therefore he would be excusing himself from any IRFU committees, discussions or communications in relation to the project.

Keogh said yesterday: "I personally wrote to Philip Browne excluding myself from all meetings, or access to any minutes, of anything to do with the redevelopment. I've also excluded myself from any involvement in my own office with regard to any knowledge of it, and that is a fact. I haven't even seen the bid documentation and I cannot even tell you who else is part of the consortium."

As to the claim that his presidency of the union and chairmanship of KMCS might provoke a conflict of interests, Keogh said: "No, for the simple reason that the IRFU is not the client redeveloping Lansdowne Road. The stadium committee, of which I am not a member, is the client."

The stadium committee will comprise two representatives each from the IRFU, the FAI and the Government, though Roddy Guiney, a spokesperson for the LRSDC, said: "Neither the IRFU or the FAI will sit on the independent three-man committee which will choose the contract."

Whichever consortium is chosen for the project management services, the quantity surveyors involved would only be one part of that consortium, and the bidding process hasn't even reached a shortlist yet.

A statement from the LRSDC also confirms that in his letter to the union, Keogh "would be excluding himself from all meetings, discussions or decisions at KMCS that were likely to involve material issues relating to the contract and would take no part in the formulation of any aspect of the tender."

In rejecting any charge of favouritism, Keogh is also supported by the LRSDC statement in stressing that "the tender process is being carried out under EU procurement rules and is being conducted by LRSDC independently of both the IRFU and the FAI." The statement also maintains that "LRSDC is happy that no such conflict exists".

As one of the leading quantity surveyor companies in Ireland, who have been part of large-scale redevelopment projects in the past, it was perhaps inevitable that KMCS would be part of a consortium bidding for the redevelopment of Lansdowne Road.

A letter to Browne and to The Irish Times highlighting the involvement of KMCS as part of a consortium in the tender process and the "serious conflict" that subsequently exists, was typed and unsigned, with no return postal address, email address or telephone number.