Andrew

Let’s agree to disagree.

Your comment does not parse.

Mike

> On 10 May 2018, at 05:53, Andrew Alston <[email protected]> 
> wrote:
> 
> Komi, 
> 
> Since the board has refused to table the actual GC report and let us see what 
> is it in, sending it back and asking the GC for another one is pointless.
> 
> Let the board disclose the first one then we can judge if anything more is 
> needed
> 
> Andrew 
> 
> Get Outlook for Android <https://aka.ms/ghei36>
> From: Komi Elitcha <[email protected]>
> Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2018 2:13:50 PM
> To: Noah
> Cc: General Discussions of AFRINIC; AfriNIC Discuss
> Subject: Re: [Community-Discuss] [members-discuss] Board update on Governance 
> Committee Report
>  
> Good day Noah, board and community,
> 
> Thank you Noah  for pointing out a range of issues and that the board should 
> send back the report to GC and task them to come up with another clear, 
> reducted and meaningful report that will not present legal and data 
> protection issues.
> 
> This should be done within a maximum of two weeks according to me.
> 
> I humbly think the board owe this level of TRANSPARENCY to his community.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> 
> 2018-05-09 17:39 GMT+00:00 Noah <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>>:
> 
> 
> On Sun, May 6, 2018 at 10:53 PM, Abibu Ntahigiye <[email protected] 
> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>  Dear Afrinic Members,
> 
> 
> 
> The Board in March 2018, as per resolution 201803.391,
>  tasked the Governance Committee (GC) to convene an investigation on 
> allegations made by a staff member. The GC was requested to define the Terms 
> of Reference (TORs) for an independent investigation, and to appoint an 
> investigation committee.  The Board requested
>  the findings to be reported by 30 April 2018.
> 
> The GC notified the community that they would deliver
>  the report by 4 May 2018, and has submitted the report to the Board on 2 May 
> 2018. The Board acknowledged receipt of the report. The Board is going to 
> thoroughly consider the report and recommendations thereof, and will share 
> with the community applicable
>  actions and steps that will be taken in due course.
> 
> The Board has also been advised that in considering
>  the report they need to be cognizant of issues of confidentiality and data 
> protection.
> 
> With regards to allegations made against certain Board
>  members, the Board can announce the following outcomes as derived from  the 
> report:
>    
> 
> That there was a violation of the Non-Disclosure Agreement
>  (NDA) and  section 153 of the Companies Act 2001, by Mr Sunday Folayan.
> 
> 
> 
> That there is no evidence whatsoever against Haitham
>  El Nakhal of having breached the terms of the NDA and/or section 153 of the 
> Companies Act 2001.
> 
>    
> 
> That the Investigation Committee (IC) is satisfied
>  that there was no evidence of harassment, bullying or intimidation by Board 
> members.
> 
> 
> The Board will re-evaluate the interim Chair and Vice
>  Chair appointments that were made in resolution 201803.398.
> 
> With regards to allegations made against certain members
>  of staff, the Board observed from the IC report  that there may have been 
> inappropriate behaviour on the part of certain staff members.
> 
> 
> The findings and recommendations related to staff matters
>  will be addressed through necessary processes.
> 
> We appeal to the community to allow the Board time
>  to consider the report carefully, and provide feedback to the community no 
> later than 31 July 2018 on the next steps and how the recommendations will be 
> implemented.
> 
> 
> Kind regards
> ----
> 
> Abibu R. Ntahigiye
> Chair, Afrinic Board.
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
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> 
> 
> 
> Dear Chairman,
> 
> Thank you for your email and I would like to draw your attention to a number 
> of issues that the Board's update on the yet to be disclosed GC report raises 
> issues considering the contents of the document that found itself on this 
> public mailing list regarding AfriNIC staff complains of harassment.  On the 
> whole, your message to the community appears to not clearly explain the real 
> issues and seems to be an attempt to exonerate board members yet this was 
> never about the entire board but rather complains about some specific members 
> of the board and I will try to explain what I mean.                           
>                                             
> 
> 1. ETHICS: 
> 
> It is obvious to this community that a member of the board shared private 
> privileged information contrary to the Company Act section 153 as rightfully 
> quoted in your email. This was even acknowledged by the director who happened 
> to be the Chair of the board at the time.  He has since resigned after the 
> community and the membership held them to a higher ethical standard. 
> 
> We can see from incontrovertible evidence shared in the chat messages that 
> both Chair and his Vice acted unethically engaged the CEO to privately 
> discuss HR issues related to a member of staff that even the CEO was unaware 
> of but yet also entertained it. To my understanding, good governance 
> practices requires that the board should operate in such a way that it has 
> nose-in,  hands-out. In circumstance where the CEO allows some of the board 
> members to have hand-in and nose-in, the CEO also should have escalated to 
> the entire board.  That is why there is a reason for separation of 
> roles/powers in organizations.
> 
> In my humble opinion, these private chats alone were further evidence of 
> unethical behavior with all the hallmarks of work-place harassment if you 
> consider the contents showed in those discussions;
> 
> - the Directors undermined a member of staff who up to this point had been 
> regarded as competent with unduly excessive and unfair criticism, 
> deliberately constraining their ability to perform their duty
> - the Directors made threats/comments about the staff that relate to the 
> employees job security without foundation and this is a form of work-place 
> harassment. 
> -  the Directors engaged in the spread of malicious rumors about staff which 
> is a form of work-place harassment
> 
> It stands to reason that the former staff who shared private chats with the 
> Chair with the complainant would have been at the brunt of similar activity 
> resulting in the claims of a witch-hunt against them in the document 
> circulated on the mailing list. As such there is no way we can claim that 
> there was no harassment yet work-place harassment can manifest itself in 
> quite a number of ways.
> 
> 2. HARRASSMENT:
> 
> Let me also point out to this community and the board, what I believe would 
> be additional forms of harassment both ethically and morally.
> - Insulting someone
> - Unfair treatment based on gender or language
> - Other misuses of power or position
> 
> Again, from the document that found itself on the mailing list, it was pretty 
> obvious to all of us that  inappropriate language was used by a member of 
> staff and from your communication Mr.Chair, its pretty much determined that 
> there was such form of harassment, which is why its always important for such 
> HR issues to be resolved equitably when they arise so that staff do not feel 
> unfairly treated.  The staff are at the heart of the organization and AfriNIC 
> needs to make sure that it will ensure a conducive working environment for 
> all members of staff both male and female.
> 
> I therefore call upon the board and management to sort out the looming human 
> resource challenge facing AfriNIC today. We should never find ourselves in 
> such situations considering the risks and reputation this has towards the 
> organization.
> 
> 3. ACCOUNTABILITY:
> 
> To conclude my submission, let me point out that the resolution passed by the 
> board to task the GC to come up with Terms of Reference for the Investigation 
> Committee in order to avoid conflict of interest on the past of the entire 
> board was the proper thing to do and this reasoning should be followed to the 
> end though I am surprised that the board tasked the GC to formulate the ToR, 
> engage an IC but did not consider the privacy and confidentiality 
> Implications of the process when it was clear that the community requested 
> and expected an independent assessment of the situation and not a board view 
> of the assessment.  
> 
> It is more surprising that the board did not anticipate the course of things 
> and has now requested for more time to go through the report  and so far we 
> have not heard of any concrete actions or measures taken towards the staff 
> issues.  Despite the time that has passed, we are also not clearer than when 
> the allegations were made save for the undeniable evidence that was shared.
> 
> Its my personal recommendation that the board send back the report to the GC 
> who should engage the IC to come up with a report that will not have legal 
> implications to the organization due to the local Data Protection Laws. This 
> should then be shared with the community and membership in my humble opinion.
> 
> 4. GOVERNANCE:
> 
> In terms of governance going forward, I believe the community and  the 
> membership want to see measures in place that will ensure a safe and 
> conducive working environment for the staff and the organization at large. 
> The board still has great opportunity to sort out a whole range of issues 
> including improvement of existing measures in place.
> 
> 
> This are my 2 cents dear community
> 
> -- 
> ./noah
> 
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> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> --KE
> 
> 
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