Stuff
Former Stadium Southland general manager Nigel Skelt: there were ‘shortcomings’ in the initial handling of a complaint against him.
The Stadium Southland board has released a statement about the independent investigation into the handling of a complaint against former manager Nigel Skelt – but has not released the actual report.
Skelt left his job in April after it became public that a teenaged staff member quit in distress and made a complaint of inappropriate conduct against him in February.
A settlement had been quietly negotiated by Invercargill Mayor Nobby Clark, who was at the time a council representative on the stadium trust, but not its management board. In the ensuing days, Skelt also resigned as an Invercargill City Councillor, triggering a by-election.
Stadium board chair Hayden Rankin said in the statement, issued at 4.50pm on Monday, that the investigation by Christchurch based barrister Tim Mackenzie had been completed.
READ MORE:
* Nobby Clark steps down from stadium trust role
* Scope of stadium trust’s review into handling of Skelt complaint unclear
* Stadium Southland harassment victim’s family mistrusted mayoral motives, documents show
* Call for Nigel Skelt to resign from ICC
It had confirmed that although there were “shortcomings in the initial actions undertaken’’, at no time were express governance or constitutional obligations breached, the statement said.
However, the statement did not elaborate on how that conclusion was reached.
The subsequent intervention and measures taken by the Stadium Southland board had been “formal and robust,’’ the statement said.
Again, no details were provided.
With “resulting changes in personnel’’, the board was well positioned to take the venue forward, the statement said, and recruitment of a permanent general manager for the stadium would start immediately.
Rankin said the board took confidence in the breadth of the review, by an experienced investigator from outside the city. It had been a six-week process over a 10-week period, Rankin noted.
The terms of reference have never been released.
Stuff asked the stadium board if it would release the report, and if not, why not, as well as further questions about the “shortcomings in the initial actions” and the conclusion there were no breaches of express governance or constitutional obligations.
The statement said that while the results of Mackenzie’s investigation were ”not unexpected’’, his report provided clarity for the organisation to move forward.
