From Mr H. R. Fox, MRPharmS
SIR,-It seems a long time since I stood before the membership at this year's annual general meeting to ask questions concerning the salaries of directors and officials of the Society. The answers I received were unsatisfactory to me. Sultan Dajani later took up this issue with the Director of Finance, the Secretary and Registrar and finally with the President.
In any public utility company or Plc, the salaries, bonuses, benefits and expenses paid to directors are normally published as a matter of course. So, asking for this kind of information is not unprecedented. Further, there was a commitment to improved corporate governance made by the President at the AGM. Despite this, Mr Dajani, a member of Council, has been denied the information. His continued frustrations led Mr Dajani to issue a press release (PJ, July 22, p118). The resulting statement issued by the Society was non-committal, if not evasive. Since then Mr Dajani has still not been given any information.
Why has Mr Dajani been denied access to this information? What have the directors and officers to hide? It might lead one to conclude that salary awards to directors and senior officials of the Society have been over-generous, way above the banding adopted through the HAY evaluation and normal expectations when posts are re-evaluated.
To make matters worse the Society is now running a huge deficit. It prompted Dr Evans (PJ, August 12, p227) to comment that the Society's finances are verging on disarray. Gordon Appelbe, immediate past treasurer, is reported to be extremely unhappy about the current situation.
The Society's President has made a commitment to corporate governance. It is now time for the President to come clean and tell the membership what is really happening.
Howard Fox
Dorchester