Cronulla director to exit amid deal claims
Cronulla director to exit amid deal claims
Sydney Morning Herald
Chris Barrett
August 18, 2011
A CRONULLA director lost his place on the board's re-election ticket after being accused of using his position at the club to try and win a $300,000 contract for his consultancy firm.
Greg Holland, a board member since 2007, is not on the ticket of chairman Damian Irvine in the Cronulla board election, which began yesterday.
His omission came after the firm Statecraft, where he is a director, attempted to land the public relations contract for the redevelopment project next to Toyota Stadium allegedly without the knowledge of the Sharks board. The prospective deal was worth about $15,000 a month over two years to Holland's company, which missed out after a tendering process.
It is alleged Holland and colleagues from Statecraft met with the Sharks' property consortium partners, Bluestone, in December to pitch for the contract. Irvine claims this was done behind Cronulla's back, with fellow board members only told about the meeting by Holland in an email sent nearly a month later.
''I've explained to Greg directly the reasons that I didn't endorse him to go forward. Our views on conflict of interest obviously differ,'' Irvine said.
''We were only informed in mid-January that the meeting and the pitch had taken place. The approach didn't sit well with us because we take very seriously the integrity of our processes.''
Holland confirmed yesterday he had met with Bluestone managing director Ben Fairfax last December, but claimed he told Sharks board members immediately afterwards of his firm's approach and subsequently withdrawn from further discussions.
''I wrote an email to the board saying a company I worked for had an interest in getting the public relations and community relations service and 'I am now declaring that conflict of interest','' Holland said.
''I had no involvement from that point on.''
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