Court offers insight into events in Goal boardroom as O'Shea fights to stay on

BACKGROUND:Questions have been arising about the running of Goal over the past few years and they are not going away

JOHN O’SHEA was not in court yesterday as the latest act in the Goal boardroom drama played out, but his presence was everywhere.

The big, bushy-haired, larger-than-life figure who is synonymous with the charity, is now at the centre of a court dispute about his position as head of the organisation he founded almost 35 years ago.

O’Shea spent his early years in Westport and Charleville in Cork, before his father’s job in a bank brought the family to Dún Laoghaire when he was 11.

On leaving school O’Shea got a job as a clerk with a coal company, but began studying in UCD by night, and got a job as a sports journalist.

Encouraged by his father to do charity work, he worked for a year with the Simon Community, and then worked with Travellers. But his true interest was in the developing world and in 1977 he set up Goal, working from the kitchen of the family home in Monkstown, Dublin, initially with a food programme in Calcutta.

The charity grew from there. By the early 1990s Goal had been registered as a company, with a premises in Dún Laoghaire. O’Shea left his job to run the organisation full-time.

By this time it had expanded into Africa and other areas. As the charity grew, O’Shea became a well-known figure, picking up accolades along the way, including two People of the Year awards, and honorary doctorates.

Passionate and known for his colourful language, O’Shea was a naturally divisive figure, provoking admiration and ire.

He had a reputation as a critic of the system of governmental aid. “The truth is, the whole aid programme and everything that has happened in my time has not been an overwhelming success. We have allowed – not deliberately – millions of people to die. We have allowed genocides, we have allowed huge famines. And the response of the international community has been pathetic,” he said in an interview with The Irish Times in 2009.

As Goal continued to expand in the 2000s, becoming a major international NGO – it currently has 164 employees and 2,700 staff working across 13 countries – cracks began to appear.

In 2009, Irish aid worker Sharon Commins was kidnapped in Sudan while working for Goal, and spent 107 days in captivity.

The spotlight turned on the workings of the charity when Commins accused the agency of endangering her life for financial gain, arguing that Goal had moved staff into areas at a time when other agencies withdrew.

O’Shea came out fighting, saying that security was the responsibility of the Sudanese authorities.

Mumblings about O’Shea’s salary also began to surface at about this time – Goal’s 2010 accounts show that two executives were paid between €100,000 and €115,000. The role of family members in the charity – both his daughters work for Goal – also raised eyebrows.

Things reached a climax in 2010 when long-time chairman Jerry Sheehan resigned. The same day fellow board members Andy Butler, Conor Sparks and David Allman also stood down.

There were further resignations from the board in 2011. In January, a sixth director, John Wilson, resigned while, later that year, barrister Ken Fogarty stepped down as chairman followed by board member Fran Rooney, the former head of the FAI and founder of Baltimore Technologies.

Rooney went public with his concerns about the charity, airing his concerns about corporate governance to RTÉ.

Earlier this year, the financial affairs of Goal again hit the headlines when Irish Aid, during a routine audit, raised concerns about a number of governance issues – in relation to the effectiveness of board engagement and oversight of the governance function – though the Government agency did note that the Irish aid funding distributed to Goal “was spent as agreed and was accounted for in a proper manner”.

Goal has received €90 million in funding from Irish Aid, the development funding arm of the Irish Government, in the last five years.

The latest twist in the saga saw O’Shea go to the High Court earlier this week to secure an injunction restraining the charity from suspending him. Yesterday the case was adjourned until next week.

The hearing last Tuesday offered an insight into the latest boardroom machinations at the charity. Counsel for O’Shea told the court that, at a board meeting earlier this month, a vote to suspend O’Shea had been defeated by six votes to five.

The judge was told that there appeared to be a “personality clash” between O’Shea and chairman Pat O’Mahony who replaced Fran Rooney earlier this year, and who publicly defended the charity following Rooney’s comments.

The court also heard that claims of “institutionalised bullying” had been made by some members of staff.

While the current difficulties centre on O’Shea and his position, the concerns about corporate governance that have been raised by board members, open up broader questions about the suitability of the current corporate legal arrangements for the non-profit sector.

Most sizeable charities are structured as companies limited by guarantee, but associations such as Dóchas, which represents Irish NGOs (though Goal is one of the few major charities which is not a member), is lobbying for greater regulation and legislation for charities.

The 2009 Charities Act promised to establish a charity regulator which would, in consultation with the sector, develop guidelines and codes of conduct.

If nothing else, Goal’s boardroom troubles show the need for that legislation to be implemented.

A spokesman for the board of Goal declined to comment on the court hearing. Efforts to contact O’Shea failed yesterday.