BORD na Mona managing director Dr Eddie O'Connor last night said he would not resign his position as managing director and claimed he was the victim of a dishonest and concerted attempt to ruin his reputation.
In his first public statement since the controversy over his remuneration started, Dr O'Connor said he would not walk away from his job and said that the accountants' report on his remuneration package was "fundamentally flawed".
Dr O'Connor strongly challenged the basis on which Price Waterhouse compiled its second report for the company board. The draft of this report included business expenses and Dr O'Connor said the majority of these were of no benefit to him personally. The accountants had gone beyond what the board asked them to do, he said in last night's statement.
The draft accountants' report is believed to show that when Dr O'Connor's salary, bonus, pension contributions and all personal and business expenses were added over his nine year term, the total came to £1.867 million. When two special top up pension payments are excluded, the total came to £1.3 million.
However, Dr O'Connor said the only purpose of including his business costs in the calculation was to "grossly exaggerate what I am supposed to have earned." He said he was sure that his total salary, bonus and personal and unvouched expenses over the nine years came to no more than £750,000.
Responding to weekend reports, Dr O'Connor claimed that "someone" had chosen to use a draft report "in order to do maximum damage" to him.
He said there was a "dishonest and concerted attempt" to ruin his reputation. Dr O'Connor's statement said he has taken "the necessary legal steps to protect whatever is left of my reputation". Contacted last night, he would not say what legal action he had in mind, or enlarge on his statement.
Dr O'Connor's basic salary and bonus payments over the term came to £585,000, in line with Departmental guidelines.
The draft report listed over £550,000 in expenses and other benefits over the nine years. But Dr O'Connor argued that the vast bulk of these are business expenses and should not be counted as part of his remuneration. His legal advisers told Price Waterhouse that he would not agree to the inclusion of these business expenses in the report, he said.
It emerged in the first Price Waterhouse report that Dr O'Connor claimed £39,000 in unreceipted expenses over the past three years. It has been confirmed that the second report showed that this total rose to over £66,000 over the full nine years.
Dr O'Connor said that all items of personal expenses were agreed as part of a package with former chairman Mr Brendan Halligan. Mr Halligan declined to comment when contacted late yesterday. The current chairman, Mr Pat Dineen, is due to meet Mr Halligan to discuss the issue when the Price Waterhouse report is complete.
At last Thursday's board meeting, Dr O'Connor was also asked to clarify a range of other expenses claims, including the details of travel undertaken. While the directors of Bord na Mona have still not seen the list of items which Dr O'Connor is being asked to clarify, it is believed to include payments to travel companies, hotels in Dublin, the US and Europe, restaurant bills and the purchase of jewellery.
Dr O'Connor's statement stressed that the more "sensational items" which he was alleged to have benefited from are false. "The fact is I have never got any wine as a form of perk and I have never used a timeshare in Portugal."
To allow Dr O'Connor to clarify outstanding issues, a board meeting has been provisionally scheduled for tomorrow. It is not clear whether Dr O'Connor's disagreement with the format of the report and his planned legal action will affect the board's plans. The chairman, Mr Dineen, could not be contacted for comment last night.
During his term, Dr O'Connor received typical managing director benefits such as a company car, a home loan subsidy and expenses related to travel and corporate entertainment.
Like all senior executives in the semi state or private sector, Dr O'Connor also had a pension package. Normal annual contributions to this totalled over £138,000 over the nine years.
Two top up payments were also made of £295,000 in 1992/93 and £291,000 in 1994/95. These do not appear to be an issue that the board is looking into.
Dr O'Connor insisted yesterday that his pension arrangements have not been honoured, which he said was "the real scandal", after 26 years service to the State in the ESB and Bord na Mona. There does appear to be a disagreement over the terms of a pension bond taken out with Sun Life of Canada.
The premiums have been paid by the company although the bond is in Dr O'Connor's name. Bord na Mona holds that Dr O'Connor has the bond in trust for it and this issue still has to be clarified.
