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After his election on 19th March 2005, Dave Burden had a busy month. Much had been going on in ACU&S. Some of it you'd heard about. But there was lot of it you hadn't.......

1. Since I took over as Chairman of the Association, I have been bringing myself up to speed on the current state of affairs. I have to tell you that I am deeply concerned with what I have found. In short:
   • we are in a desperate financial position - our current assets have a book value of around £115,750, though the market value may be slightly less than that; our bank balance (with the large majority of subscription income already collected) is around £5,200 and our commitments on staffing and office alone until the end of the financial year are around £24,500;
   • far from being a done deal simply taking time to be delivered, there is no worthwhile commitment to sponsorship from any organisation;
   • the entry of £100,000 into last year's accounts was a deliberate attempt to have "a beneficial effect on our end-of-year accounts". If - as I believe will be the case - it is not received, our true financial position will be £100,000 worse off, meaning that our liabilities will exceed our assets;
   • Barrie Stuart-King deliberately misled the AGM on this point, and was not contradicted by a number of other officers who knew the facts;
   • as a result of placing this amount into the accounts, we have had to pay £17,500 in VAT (though I believe this to be returnable);
   • again contrary to what was said at the AGM, which was advised that the Association would have no financial liability for any of the laptops and projectors procured from Elonex, I have discovered that the Association has entered into short-term leasing arrangements, I assume in order to manage cash flow. There are at least four of these agreements (and may be more), the first of which is now due in the sum of almost £35,000;
   • the ECB, having received our accounts and, in the person of Frank Kemp (an ACU&S member in his own right) attended the AGM, have asked to examine our books before paying this year's grant of £25,000 and
   • Barrie Stuart-King, variously describing himself as "Legal Consultant", "Legal Support Services" and "Senior Consultant" has issued correspondence on computer-generated headed notepaper of an organisation called "ACUS Member Protection Services" using the Club Cricket Conference (CCC) address and either a CCC or ACU&S e-mail address. This appears to be a business with no connection with the aims of either of the organisations whose communications addresses it used.

2. What I have been able to uncover in the short month since I was elected persuades me that there has been a deliberate attempt to keep the true state of affairs away from both General Council and the wider membership. You have, frankly, not been told the truth, and I have had the greatest trouble in obtaining information myself: Barrie Stuart-King has not handed over official ACU&S documents; and the Finance Board has been reluctant to give me a full picture of the parlous state of our finances. This paper is an attempt to right that position by passing on what I have thus far been able to discover.

   Sponsorship

3. We have been told that it was proper to put a sum of £100,000 into last year's accounts as that sum had been committed by (unnamed) sponsors before the end of the financial year. We were also told that the auditors had received assurances in writing from the sponsor that the money would be forthcoming. I am given to understand - though I was obviously not a member at the time - that Council approved the accounts at its January meeting on that basis. I have now discovered two invoices, both number 0304/87, both dated 26 October 2004, each for £100,000 + £17,500 VAT, in respect of "sponsorship of various umpiring and scoring seminars". One of these is addressed to ACE European Group (an insurance firm); the other is addressed to the National Association of Clubs and Leagues Cricket Conferences Ltd (NACLCC). Copies of these invoices are attached at Annex A1 and Annex A2 respectively.

   It is in respect of the second of these two invoices that the auditors received notification from the NACLCC to the effect that "a balance of £117,500.00 was owing by us to the Association of Cricket Umpires & Scorers". That notice was signed by Barrie Stuart-King in his capacity as Chief Executive of NACLCC. A copy is attached at Annex A3.

4. In fact, despite its date, that invoice was sent by Chris Rawson to Barrie Stuart-King on 11 November. Assuming it arrived the following day (12 November, a Friday), the very earliest it could have been with NACLCC was 17 days after the end of the financial year.
5. Chris Rawson sent an e-mail to Barrie Stuart-King the same day advising that the invoice had been posted to him. That e-mail is reproduced at Annex B. The first paragraph confirms the details I have reported in the previous paragraph of this statement. The second paragraph reports that "issuing this invoice has had a beneficial effect on our end-of-year accounts - if you don't look too closely at the debtors" and goes on to remind Mr Stuart-King that a £15,000 (sic) VAT payment would be required "as a result". I understand payment has been made, so the Association has paid out real money in VAT on fictitious money not received. I understand it will be possible to recover this amount from HM Customs & Excise, but of course we have lost interest and quite possibly incurred loan costs (see below).
6. None of the £117,500 has yet been received. Despite a good number of complicated and confusing explanations from Mr Stuart-King about how the money was definitely coming but there had been delays as a result of certain business organisational changes at international level on the part of the sponsors, he wrote to ACE as late as 1 February 2005 asking for £150,000 sponsorship in "Year 1: 2005-2006". If £100,000 were guaranteed for 2004-05, why would 2005-06 be described as "year 1"? This, and the general tenor of the letter, reproduced at Annex C. persuade me that any alleged promise of £100,000 for last year from this source was illusory and will not be forthcoming.
7. Nor will it be forthcoming from NACLCC, irrespective of the notice signed by Mr Stuart-King on their behalf. At the time the invoice was issued, the assets of NACLCC totalled less than £100. They would have been in no position to pay £117,500; and nor are they now.

   Payments for laptops and projectors

8. The Rawson e-mail of 11 November was copied to Peter Freeman and to Martin Reed. The postcript asks "were you able to sort out the payments for the PC projector / laptop leases from the schedule I sent you?" So clearly the Association has entered into loan arrangements and is now required to meet the charges. I am aware of four such arrangements. The first, fom ING Finance, is in the sum of £34,129.68 and was due for repayment in full on Monday, 10 April, previous instalments not having been repaid. There are also arrangements with the Bank of Scotland and organisations called GE Capital and Weatherby's. There may be others. They are in respect of the lease (not purchase) of laptops and projectors and amount to over £47,000 for the period 29 October 2004 to 25 September 2005. A copy of the schedule drawn up by Chris Rawson (Assistant Treasurer (Accounts)) showing these sums is attached at Annex D.
9. The fact that Messrs Freeman and Reed were on the copy list for that e-mail is evidence that they were aware, in whole or in part, of what was going on. Yet they took no action when Mr Stuart-King answered questions at the AGM with different information.

   ECB

10. The ECB, not surprisingly, has become concerned as to the financial viability of and propriety within the Association. They have indicated that they will not be making their annual grant of £25,000 in respect of this financial year until they have satisfied themselves as to the state of our affairs. They have therefore asked to examine all our records, both of the official accounts and, in as much as they exist, of the dealings with the Post Office in respect of the sponsorship received from them. Mr Stuart-King suggested at the AGM that no records of the latter exist, an extraordinary state of affairs, in my view, as if I had been responsible for the arrangements I would at the very least have wanted to keep proper accounts to protect myself from any misconceived allegations of fraud. What we do know is that at least £12,000 is outstanding in respect of payments to the authors of Jubilee Tom Smith. £9,000 is now over 6 months due and one of the unpaid authors has been advised by the Society of Authors to take legal action against the Association, a contract in whose name was signed by Mr Stuart-King. A meeting with the ECB has been arranged for next week.

    ACUS Member Protection Services

11. Mr Stuart-King was both Chairman of the Association and Chief Executive of the Club Cricket Conference and often spoke of the synergy between the two organisations. He conducted much ACU&S business from the offices of the CCC. He was made redundant from his position with the CCC on Friday 18 March as a consequence of the Conference's having failed to obtain additional funds and needing to use its finances to fund its operations rather than pay for a Chief Executive.
12. Mr Stuart-King also appears to have been using the Conference offices to run an organisation called ACUS Member Protection Services, which seems to be in the business of taking on finance companies and, in one case, the Metropolitan Police Service, on behalf of individuals. An example is attached at Annex E. In some of the letterheads, the chairman@acus.org.uk e-mail address is used; in others, a Conference e-mail address is employed. The coincidence of acronym (despite the missing ampersand) may be thought remarkable.
13. Mr Stuart-King describes himself on various pieces of correspondence on behalf of this organisation using a number of titles that suggest legal expertise; he has not to my knowledge previously claimed any.

    Action taken

14. Since being elected I have:
    • endeavoured to obtain an understanding of what is happening in the Association. I have undertaken part of this work in co-operation with the Club Cricket Conference, who are also investigating the state of their own affairs. Many of the documents in my possession were passed on by the CCC having been stored in their computer;
    • ordered a moratorium on all but essential spending in order to prevent our already very precarious financial position from deteriorating;
    • held emergency meetings of the Executive Board and the Finance Board;
    • undertaken, with the reluctant agreement of the Finance Board, to co-operate fully in an investigation of our accounts and other financial documents by the ECB;
    • sought to bring Council Members up to date with the current situation as soon as possible.

15. For the immediate future, I intend to continue investigations into our affairs, which I believe to have been wrongfully mishandled. I shall take whatever action I deem necessary to protect the Association and our members' interests. This may include taking legal action against anyone, whether inside or outside the Association, from whom we can legitimately hope to recover money. It may also mean inviting several officers of the Association to tender their resignation. I shall ensure that Council and the wider membership are updated regularly.

D L BURDEN
16 April 2005

The last paragraph really worried some on General Council. This new man, Burden, was dangerous - a loose cannon! How could they keep him from prying into what had been going on?

And when the Committee did report, they printed a synopsis so completely filleted it was unrecognisable. Have a look at the PearsonReport.pdf Report and see what you think. Link to Pearson Report