黑洞社区

Big decisions at the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) should be taken by members and not staff, the man leading an independent review of the body has said.

Michael Bichard, a former senior civil servant, said there was a sense among members of the RICS that some staff had 鈥渂een around so long that they thought they ran the show鈥�.

He said that the relationship between members of the institution and staff 鈥渋s not quite right at the moment and it can be changed and it needs to be changed鈥�.

Bichard is about halfway through a six-month review of the RICS, which is being carried out in the wake of the publication of Alison Levitt鈥檚 damning report into a governance scandal at the institution.

Chief executive Sean Tompkins, president Kathleen Fontana, management board chair Paul Marcuse and governing council chair Chris Brookes all resigned last September after Levitt found that four non-executive directors had been wrongly dismissed after raising concerns about the handling of a critical report on the RICS鈥� finances.

Bichard, who is a former permanent secretary of the Department for Education, was appointed to lead the review into the RICS鈥� future purpose and governance in December.

He said yesterday that many members he had spoken to as part of the review鈥檚 call for evidence felt that power had shifted from members to senior staff to such an extent that the RICS was no longer a member-led organisation.

He said: 鈥淭he staff need to know that they鈥檙e here to advise and support. They鈥檙e not here to take the final decisions.

鈥淭his is a membership organisation and I start from the position that ultimately the big decisions should be taken by the members. I think that鈥檚 been lost.

鈥淚鈥檝e spent my life advising ministers, local authority leaders and university councils. They don鈥檛 always agree with my advice, and that鈥檚 fine because they ought to be taking the final decisions, not the staff.鈥�

The transparency of the RICS鈥� leadership has been a criticism frequently voiced by members over the past year following the emergence of the governance scandal which led to Tompkins鈥� downfall.

In an update on the review, Bichard said many members he had spoken to had 鈥渇elt pressured in the past by the executive when seeking to reassert their influence or challenge thinking鈥�.

Bichard also suggested that the RICS, which represents 19 different disciplines, should be wary of rival organisations which might try to 鈥減ick off鈥� members outside the UK which feel under-represented.

He said: 鈥淸The RICS] is a big family. And not all of them feel that they have sufficient say or are listened to sufficiently.

鈥淭here are鈥� smaller institutions that have grown up here and around the world over the last few years, who would be very happy to pick off members from the RICS.

鈥淚f you can identify an organisation that gives at least as good a service at less price in those places [abroad] why wouldn鈥檛 you join it? You鈥檝e got to be aware of the competition.鈥�

Asked if one outcome of his review could be that the 154-year-old institution is broken up, he said it would be most likely to happen to the institution鈥檚 overseas devisions, adding 鈥淚鈥檝e always worked on the basis that you should never be blind to any threat.鈥�

He said: 鈥淯nless you鈥檝e got an awareness of the potential competition, you鈥檙e not so urgent in addressing the problems that you鈥檝e got.

鈥淥nce you start realising that there are people out there who could actually take some of your members and take some of your influence, then i think it concentrates the mind quite a lot.鈥�

But Bichard said that the RICS is able to recover, and it is in the best interests of the chartered surveying profession that it recovers.

Paul Morrell, the government鈥檚 former chief construction advisor, told 黑洞社区 last year that breaking up the RICS was 鈥渙ne solution鈥� that should be considered to making it operate more effectively.

Morrell, who has been a RICS member for 50 years, said the body was too diverse and tried to represent too many interests, adding: 鈥淵ou simply wouldn鈥檛 invent the RICS if it didn鈥檛 already exist.鈥�

Bichard鈥檚 review is due to be published in full in June, after which he said the key decisions on the future of the institution will be in the hands of its leadership.