Nine of the 12 Directors of UKGI have been appolinted from September 2022 or later. So its to be hoped that they already have in place a plan to change the culture of the organisation.
Why does the culture need to change? Just look at UKGI's role in the Post Office scandal. Like many organisations they were slow to realise the extent of the corporate wrong doing. But perhaps the most shocking revelation that their former Chairman (recently left in 2021) admitted at the enquiry was that a dashboard with risks on it "was not presented for discussion at the board it was presented for information".
Some would say that a Board that delegates discussion of risks is one that seriously misunderstands its role in corporate governance.
Looking at the history of UKGI one conclusion might be that private sector bankers, consultants and their ilk may have many commercial skill sets. But what they don't have is the actual experience of holding arms length owned government organisations to account to the standards that tax payers assume somebody is applying on their behalf..
Perhaps their lack of attention to this dynamic is because, although a few people might be chosen to suffer public humiliation with honours returned, for the rest there is no such danger nor the risk or criminal prosecution.
Below I've set out some more detail on the performance of UKGI.
More detail
Owned by HM Treasury, UK Government Investments - UKGI - (previously the Stakeholder Executive) purpose is "to be the government’s centre of excellence in corporate governance and corporate finance. One of our core objectives is to act as shareholder for, and lead the establishment of, UK government arm’s length bodies." (Source 2)
The UKGI what we do/governance website page says - about a1/3rd of a way down the page - says that "The public sector and state owned enterprises, wholly or partially owned, which UKGI works with are" and then there is a long list of 16 or so arms length wholly/partially state owned enterprises covering the nuclear industry, various bank like organisations, Channel 4, Nat West and the Royal Mint.
Of the 12 current officers of UKGI listed with Companies House, all have been appointed in the last 4 or 5 years with the bulk from 2022 but others earlier. Presumably they would all argue that their tenure at UKGI is after the peak 2014-2018 cover up period at the Post Office as concerns the Horizon and sub-postmaster scandal. (the PO is one of the organisations UKGI works with).
Assuming that argument is valid, they still inherit a UKGI culture which resulted in:
- in 2014 one reported risk "if the system were to show up as defective, then potentially the criminal convictions could be overturned and compensation [from Post Office] Ltd" that didn't go to the Shareholder Executive Board. At the PO enquiry UKGI's Chief Exec - Mark Russell - (2013-2019) stated that particular risk hadn't been considered significant.
- at the PO enquiry UKGI's Chairman - Robert Swannell (2014-2021) said that the dashboard with the risks on it "was not presented for discussion at the board it was presented for information". So even in 2018, 2 years after litigation against the PO had been launched, this risk was not considered. It did become a top priority for the Board when, in March 2019, the High Court voiced a verdict ofn the PO's "oppressive" behaviour.
According to the Companies House records available on line, as at 17/8/2024 - the 12 current officers are
Dr Mahnaz, Akbary-Safa - Occupation Non-Executive Director
Andrew Mark Ballheimer - Occupation Non-Executive Director
Manvinder Singh Banga - Occupation Company Director
Gareth Neil Davies - Occupation Civil Servant
Kalpana Desai - Occupation Non-Executive Director
Charles Hunter Donald - Occupation Chief Executive
Andrew James Duff - Occupation Llpmember
Jessica Elizabeth Glover - Occupation Civil Servant
Andrew Nigel Halford - Occupation Company Director
Dr Vanessa Vivienne, Lawrence - Occupation Company Director
Iain James Mackay - Occupation Company Director
Elizabeth Jane Russel - Occupation Civil Servant
Photo by @bendavisual via unsplash.com
Sources
1) Post above initially inspired with assertions made in page 7 "Steward Inquiry" paragraphs and page 40"Post Office Enquiry" page in Private Eye Issue no. 1630 16th August - 29th August 2024.
2) UKGI's 6th May 2021 letter replying to Rt Hon Mel Stride, MP
Chair of the Treasury Committee, on the Committees their inquiry into the lessons to be learnt from the failure of Greensill Capital.
3) Various queries of Gemini AI on UKGI
4) The application of some HI
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