Former President of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), Patrick Rousseau, has questioned the appointment of Chief Financial Officer Richard Jodhan, to the committee set up to manage the affairs of the WICB until a new President and Vice-President are elected. He has raised this query in the context of resignations by himself and the former Vice-President, Clarvis Joseph, on an issue of authority as well as alleged abuse of authority by Mr. Jodhan and Executive Secretary, Andrew Sealy.

Mr. Rousseau, in a statement on June 14, 2001, presented information and opinions on an investment made by Mr. Jodhan on the WICB's behalf with Merrill Lynch and Co. as a reason for not including Mr. Jodhan on the Management Committee.

The WICB Board of Directors considered this matter since April 11 of this year. At that meeting the Board appointed a committee to investigate the investment. This committee was headed by Antiguan banker and WICB director Enoch Lewis with Vice-President Clarvis Joseph and directors Stephen Alleyne and Val Banks as the other members.

The investigating committee submitted a report to the board at the meeting of June 2 when Messrs Rousseau and Joseph were still President and Vice-President. The Board under Mr. Rousseau's chairmanship agreed to accept the recommendation of the committee to liquidate the investment. The recommendation was that WICB work closely with Merrill Lynch to liquidate the portfolio in an effort to minimise or recover any losses that might have been incurred due to the decline of the stock market globally.

Since April there had been full disclosure on the issue to Board members with explanations from Mr. Jodhan and followed up by the more recent presentation of the report of the investigating committee under Agenda item 10 at the Board of Directors meeting on June 1 & 2. This meeting under Mr. Rousseau's chairmanship made no decision to take any action against Mr. Jodhan or any other member of the WICB staff in relation to the matter.

The WICB would like to assure the public that there was never any evidence or even suggestion of dishonesty on the part of anyone involved in this matter and even Mr. Rousseau has been quoted as confirming this to be so in a recent interview. In addition, we must emphasise that the investigation revealed absolutely no evidence of any falsification of Board resolutions by Messrs Jodhan and Sealy or any other officer, as alleged by Mr. Rousseau in his statement of June 14.

At that meeting of June 2 Mr. Jodhan verbally tendered his resignation as Chief Financial Officer but no reason was given.

Since at the time of appointment of the management committee on June 5 Mr. Jodhan was and still is Chief Financial Officer, he assumed a position on the committee in that capacity.

The Management Committee at its meeting on June 13 agreed that a discussion be held between Mr. Jodhan and representatives of the committee in the wake of his verbal resignation.

Moreover, there was general agreement among Board members during discussions of this issue that accountabilities and procedures within the WICB need to be fully documented. The WICB Management Committee at its meeting in Barbados on Wednesday June 13 took steps towards the development of such documentation.

The Board will not make any further comment on the information presented by Mr. Rousseau until it has had an opportunity to consult with its members.

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