General Auckland Rugby League
- Thread starter WahsaurusRex
- Start date
. What a shambles.. We got lucky with Mohawk.
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Did Russell leap or was she pushed.Rebecca ‘The Duchess’ Russell quits Auckland Rugby League
The woman whose leadership exposed alleged conflicts of interest and fraud at Auckland Rugby League is leaving for a new role, saying her work is done.
- Chief executive Rebecca Russell has quit and is leaving Auckland Rugby League after two years and eight months in the job.
- Her leadership exposed multiple conflicts of interest, management issues and fraud at Auckland Rugby League.
- Former Auckland Rugby League chairman Cameron McGregor was stripped of his life membership in October over alleged management and governance failures. He denies wrongdoing.
Rebecca Russell came into Auckland Rugby League (ARL) as chief executive to then be dubbed “The Duchess” by league’s old guard once she started digging into 20 years of management and governance decisions.
The result was an explosive report from financial services giant PwC which alleged standard business and oversight processes had been sidelined for years.
It also revealed an alleged fraud by a long-serving staff member that had been going on under the eye of managers and board directors for at least a decade.
“It’s been a wild ride,” she told the Herald. “One thing I really reflect on for me and my team is the level of personal resilience. I have surprised myself with the level of resilience I’ve had. It’s been huge.”
Russell was the first female CEO at Auckland Rugby League.
“I think I’ve done everything with integrity. I’ve always wanted the best for the game,” she told the Herald.
Russell said she was leaving to run The Y North which operates 20 centres from the Bay of Plenty and Waikato up to Warkworth. “The Y” is a modern evolution of the YMCA which operates community programmes along with accommodation, camps, and fitness centres.
“It’s big and it’s meaningful. It’s an opportunity I didn’t want to pass up.
“With ARL, when I came into the role there were a couple of things I made clear … that transformation would take two years, and it’s taken a little longer. And I said I never wanted to be part of the furniture.”
She said she now leaves the organisation with modernised systems and robust governance through a new constitution voted in by Auckland clubs.
When Russell came to ARL she found a paper-based office that had “no processes, no procedures, no standards”. In her attempt to institute order, she developed concerns over decisions that had been made, so hired PwC to carry out a review.
The PwC report raised questions over $7.2 million of spending over the period it studied with some of league’s vaunted administrators caught in its inquiry into governance practices.
The PwC report alleged conflicts of interest along with poor decision-making with ARL’s new management describing the inquiry as painting a picture of an organisation with a 20-year history of slipshod management and governance.
It also alleged a long-serving staff member had taken $183,798 through credit card and invoice fraud and spent much of the money at SkyCity casino.
Three directors of ARL were suspended with long-time administrator Cameron McGregor the highest-profile among those singled out by name in the PwC report.
McGregor, an accountant, was stripped of life membership along with former ARL employee Pat Carthy with ARL citing alleged management and governance failures during their time on the board.
In an interview with the Herald, McGregor denied any wrongdoing, saying: “I know what I have done is right and my values that I adhere to have never wavered and the truth will come out.”
He also backed the national sports body, New Zealand Rugby League, when it organised meetings with Auckland clubs without their own governing body ARL involved. NZRL’s Independent Appeals Committee also attempted to over-rule ARL’s suspension of directors.
“If the clubs come together – and that’s what NZRL wants them to do – the clubs can control what’s going to happen,” he said.
Russell meanwhile says she’s confident she’s leaving ARL in good shape.
She said the Auckland clubs had voted on a new constitution that demands greater rigour at board level, an appointments panel to screen applicants for the right skills, an increase in independent directors, and the removal of voting rights for life members.
“I think the clubs made it pretty clear they didn’t want any interference from NZRL.”
Only two of the current dozen life members turned up for the vote, she said, with one objecting to the removal of life member voting rights. The previous system had given “huge power” to life members, she said.
She said the mix has increased the skill set of those running a $15m organisation that served the 10,000 players across 30 clubs, along with a role managing the $78m held in its charitable investment arm, the Carlaw Heritage Trust.
The new board was now made up of three independent directors (up from two), a director elected by each of the three Auckland regions and a “wild card” director elected by all regions.
Voting was currently under way to choose a new board which would then choose her successor in the new year. Russell is expecting to finish next month and start with The Y in February.
“What we’re starting to see come through is really quality candidates. We’re not seeing those with conflicts. It looks to me that it is no longer a popularity contest.”
She said the internal office systems were now strong with a shift to digital tools and a great team carrying out the work.
Russell said discussions with NZRL had largely resolved friction between the organisations with some matters from the appeals board still lingering.
She said reflecting on the period of her leadership brought no second-guessing on decisions. “If you know in your heart and mind you’ve done things with integrity then you don’t have regrets.”
The $500,000 cost of the PwC report was the price paid for skipping processes for years, she said. “If it had been managed, we wouldn’t have this one-off cost. I don’t see it as a cost. I see it as an investment.”
'It's been a wild ride': Rebecca Russell quits Auckland rugby league after reforms
Russell reveals the changes she's made since uncovering fraud and mismanagement at ARL.www.nzherald.co.nz
I get the feeling she sorted out an amateur organisation but upset a lot of people along the way.
The proof will be if the ARL stays ‘corporate’ or goes back to a more amateur route once she’s gone. My pick is in 5 years we’re back to an old boys club running things again.
Good on Rebecca !
Let’s hope the ARL does not just go back to the old ways .
What would George Rainey think about what has taken place?
Let’s hope the ARL does not just go back to the old ways .
What would George Rainey think about what has taken place?
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John Nick
Contributor
Apart from the fiscal & admin clean out which was well overdue has anyone seen improvements in the footy side of the game?
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Considering the damage of covid on the grassroots game in Auckland, the game is really thriving, especially in junior footy. The Warriors success last year and the new junior rep and women’s opportunities are behind the success.
I know the rot at the top that has the public thinking that the whole ARL is a basket case but I know of some excellent people doing really good things in the organisation. Ironically, they missed out in buying the Warriors but have more people working for the Warriors now than they’ve ever had. Adding to that, the Warriors have a lot of local coaches involved in the pathways teams to lighten the load. We can thank the owner and Gould for that probably.
I also believe that there’s some good young refs coming through that could move on to the NRL and are getting professional training here to hopefully make that happen.
Getting the top sorted is massive. Losing $4m in the purchase and sale of the Warriors is massive and then the mismanagement on top of that hurts too. That money going in to support the clubs and grass roots makes a difference.
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Yeah, how they keep shooting them selves in the foot is mind boggling. Too much power and money in too few hands IMO. Buying the Warriors was madness.
BTW, they’ve done a massive upgrade of their website: https://www.aucklandleague.co.nz/
John Nick
Contributor
Thanks Viking. Good to hear from someone who knows the local scene.
I have been away from it too long.
Thanks for posting this.
My son wanted to play league last year. Well more tag for his age. I tried to get him to check with his classmates what rugby club they were with and that didn't go very far.
I tried some of the local league clubs and it looked like their sites hadn't been updated for years. Even going past it looked like no one went to the club. I have seen people there, training and playing since.
I even had a friend post on FaceBook about playing league and contacting the ARL. I did that and went back and forth. They didn't have any contact information for one of their own clubs.
Seen them listed there so might be able to move forward now. I'll leave the boy to deal with his mother.
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Some of the really small clubs didn’t survive covid or had to scale back to recover. I don’t think Mt Wellington survived and a number of the other clubs only have a few teams. A good example of this is ECB who had strong prems teams just 15 years ago but don’t have any seniors now that I know of. The women’s grades have breathed new life into the Auckland game IMO.
If the ARL could dominate tag, it would help local league too. NZTag have gotten too money hungry and their nationals and Oceania comps for juniors aren’t as popular as they used to be. ARL should throw some time and money at tag to grab the market. I like the ARL modules and rules compared to NZTag.
1995warriorsfan
Contributor
Cameron McGregor response to PWC report.
Auckland Rugby League issues caused by "cash grab"
Leading administrator says he has been scapegoated as cash-strapped ARL absorb millions of dollars set aside for the future of rugby league.
New Zealand Rugby League life member and respected administrator Cameron McGregor has engaged forensic accountants, business valuers and merger &acquisition specialists Covisory, to provide powerful ammunition to protect his Auckland Rugby League life membership - and is commencing legal action to clear his name of what he says are false and misleading allegations.
The ARL are trying to strip him of his life membership following the release of a report by financial experts PwC. It looked into past financial management and governance of ARL and highlighted what
it said were multiple conflicts of interests and a total loss of $7.2m - which PwC attributed in part to poor or undocumented decision-making.
McGregor says he completely repudiates allegations made ni the report commissioned by the CEO of the ARL, Rebecca Russell, who has since resigned along with Louis Nel, Group General Manager of
ARL. McGregor has engaged Covisory to analyse the PWC report, to be made public shortly, and says
it shows the allegations made are without substance and il founded.
He has been made a scapegoat, he says, for a "cash grab" by the ARL for $10m of cash reserves held by the Carlaw Heritage Trust - the charitable body set up by McGregor in 2005 to assure the future of rugby league in Auckland and of which he was chairman until 2019.
The trust had accrued $10m in cash reserves, plus millions more in assets and shares. Now, says McGregor, that $10m cash has largely or completely gone - he believes to shore up ARLs' shaky financial operations: "Al you have to do is look at their 2023 accounts," he said, "and ti is clear they booked $6.8m in expenses on income of $900,000. How does that work?"
Previously the CHT, a registered charitable trust, operated as a separate and independent entity, with a separate board of trustees, when it came to funnelling money to the ARL to help ruby league clubs foster the game. However, in recent times, McGregor says Russell and Nel had been permitted to attend trustee meetings and act as signatories to the transfer of grants to the ARL.
The CHT reserves were designed to be used for the good of the game and to ensure rugby league's future ni Auckland - not as a plug for leaky ARL financial resources, McGregor says, but ni June the ARL "fired" al the CHT trustees, replacing them with others with non-rugby league backgrounds, "because they [ARL] wanted control of the money". Two of the independent board members and an ARL-appointed board member had since also resigned.
"To my certain knowledge, there have been yearly payments from the CHT of $1.2m in capital
repayments plus interest on debt, plus two grants of $3m and other payments, totalling over $9m," McGregor says. "Now the CHT is rapidly running out of money, and, in my view, that is one of the reasons they have all resigned.
McGregor says the ARL now has a large staff and a hefty wage and salary bill of millions annually: "It's al been spent. The ARL have been openly talking about the CHT as the financial arm of the ARL - which it very much is not.
"Yet fi you read the reporting of the PwC report, there is a vague but damaging reference there to
the spending of $7.2m which is indirectly linked to me, along with 'allegations of conflicts of interest, poor financial management, slipshod management and governance'. The PwC report itself contains
no mention of $7.2m and no substantive evidence backing up those claims. Someone has just done some rough maths and then gone public with it," he says.
"They have attacked me because I have challenged them on this spending. There has been no transparency or accountability by the ARL over the last two years."
"In light of the ARLs' financial position, you have to wonder why they are spending over $500,000 on such a report. It would not surprise me fi they have spent more than that on legal fees."
McGregor says he si investigating action against PwC after what he called a "one-sided report. There were many other people they could have talked to - but didn't. They would have got a very different picture. You have to wonder why it was done like that, rather than a proper, forensic examination of the ARL over the last 20 years and the issues arising during that time. Conveniently, there si a lack of past governance records despite the fact that ARL had very good records when Istepped down as Chairman in 2019."
His lawyers were exploring whether PwC had overstepped the financial propriety mark in gathering some of the material used in the report - which also contained damaging reference to McGregor's accounting firm biling "tens of thousands of dollars", alegedly without any conflict of interest paperwork or board approval.
The Covisory analysis makes it clear, he says, the monies billed were by agreement, were basic expenses that bore no relation to the many unpaid hours he worked on behalf of the ARL over the decades he was involved with the ARL as chairman and in other roles.
McGregor is appealing to the NZRL over the ARL decision to strip his ARL life membership; he is also alife member of NZRL. "However, even fi we win, there's stil abig question mark because the ARL stood three directors down over a year ago - meaning they then did not have a quorum to make any board decisions. The NZRL Independent Judiciary committee agreed with me on a number of issues ruling that the Board had been unconstitutional since October 2023.
"Since then, everything they have done - endeavouring ot terminate my life membership, appointing new directors and drawing up a new constitution - has and continues to be unconstitutional," McGregor says. "The NZRL have told them ti is unconstitutional, but they are just ploughing on and ignoring them. That's also what Imean when Isay whoever takes over from Russell is in for a
surprise.
"They will find an awful financial and governance mess. It will take the ARL many years to recover, and the clubs will be the losers."
He said he was also considering a defamation action because of the damage to his reputation. "I have been encouraged by a lot of rugby league people who read the reports and who al said to me: 'Don't worry, Cameron, we know what you have done for rugby league and we know what is really going on."
For more information: Contact Cameron McGregor at [email protected]
Auckland Rugby League issues caused by "cash grab"
Leading administrator says he has been scapegoated as cash-strapped ARL absorb millions of dollars set aside for the future of rugby league.
New Zealand Rugby League life member and respected administrator Cameron McGregor has engaged forensic accountants, business valuers and merger &acquisition specialists Covisory, to provide powerful ammunition to protect his Auckland Rugby League life membership - and is commencing legal action to clear his name of what he says are false and misleading allegations.
The ARL are trying to strip him of his life membership following the release of a report by financial experts PwC. It looked into past financial management and governance of ARL and highlighted what
it said were multiple conflicts of interests and a total loss of $7.2m - which PwC attributed in part to poor or undocumented decision-making.
McGregor says he completely repudiates allegations made ni the report commissioned by the CEO of the ARL, Rebecca Russell, who has since resigned along with Louis Nel, Group General Manager of
ARL. McGregor has engaged Covisory to analyse the PWC report, to be made public shortly, and says
it shows the allegations made are without substance and il founded.
He has been made a scapegoat, he says, for a "cash grab" by the ARL for $10m of cash reserves held by the Carlaw Heritage Trust - the charitable body set up by McGregor in 2005 to assure the future of rugby league in Auckland and of which he was chairman until 2019.
The trust had accrued $10m in cash reserves, plus millions more in assets and shares. Now, says McGregor, that $10m cash has largely or completely gone - he believes to shore up ARLs' shaky financial operations: "Al you have to do is look at their 2023 accounts," he said, "and ti is clear they booked $6.8m in expenses on income of $900,000. How does that work?"
Previously the CHT, a registered charitable trust, operated as a separate and independent entity, with a separate board of trustees, when it came to funnelling money to the ARL to help ruby league clubs foster the game. However, in recent times, McGregor says Russell and Nel had been permitted to attend trustee meetings and act as signatories to the transfer of grants to the ARL.
The CHT reserves were designed to be used for the good of the game and to ensure rugby league's future ni Auckland - not as a plug for leaky ARL financial resources, McGregor says, but ni June the ARL "fired" al the CHT trustees, replacing them with others with non-rugby league backgrounds, "because they [ARL] wanted control of the money". Two of the independent board members and an ARL-appointed board member had since also resigned.
"To my certain knowledge, there have been yearly payments from the CHT of $1.2m in capital
repayments plus interest on debt, plus two grants of $3m and other payments, totalling over $9m," McGregor says. "Now the CHT is rapidly running out of money, and, in my view, that is one of the reasons they have all resigned.
McGregor says the ARL now has a large staff and a hefty wage and salary bill of millions annually: "It's al been spent. The ARL have been openly talking about the CHT as the financial arm of the ARL - which it very much is not.
"Yet fi you read the reporting of the PwC report, there is a vague but damaging reference there to
the spending of $7.2m which is indirectly linked to me, along with 'allegations of conflicts of interest, poor financial management, slipshod management and governance'. The PwC report itself contains
no mention of $7.2m and no substantive evidence backing up those claims. Someone has just done some rough maths and then gone public with it," he says.
"They have attacked me because I have challenged them on this spending. There has been no transparency or accountability by the ARL over the last two years."
"In light of the ARLs' financial position, you have to wonder why they are spending over $500,000 on such a report. It would not surprise me fi they have spent more than that on legal fees."
McGregor says he si investigating action against PwC after what he called a "one-sided report. There were many other people they could have talked to - but didn't. They would have got a very different picture. You have to wonder why it was done like that, rather than a proper, forensic examination of the ARL over the last 20 years and the issues arising during that time. Conveniently, there si a lack of past governance records despite the fact that ARL had very good records when Istepped down as Chairman in 2019."
His lawyers were exploring whether PwC had overstepped the financial propriety mark in gathering some of the material used in the report - which also contained damaging reference to McGregor's accounting firm biling "tens of thousands of dollars", alegedly without any conflict of interest paperwork or board approval.
The Covisory analysis makes it clear, he says, the monies billed were by agreement, were basic expenses that bore no relation to the many unpaid hours he worked on behalf of the ARL over the decades he was involved with the ARL as chairman and in other roles.
McGregor is appealing to the NZRL over the ARL decision to strip his ARL life membership; he is also alife member of NZRL. "However, even fi we win, there's stil abig question mark because the ARL stood three directors down over a year ago - meaning they then did not have a quorum to make any board decisions. The NZRL Independent Judiciary committee agreed with me on a number of issues ruling that the Board had been unconstitutional since October 2023.
"Since then, everything they have done - endeavouring ot terminate my life membership, appointing new directors and drawing up a new constitution - has and continues to be unconstitutional," McGregor says. "The NZRL have told them ti is unconstitutional, but they are just ploughing on and ignoring them. That's also what Imean when Isay whoever takes over from Russell is in for a
surprise.
"They will find an awful financial and governance mess. It will take the ARL many years to recover, and the clubs will be the losers."
He said he was also considering a defamation action because of the damage to his reputation. "I have been encouraged by a lot of rugby league people who read the reports and who al said to me: 'Don't worry, Cameron, we know what you have done for rugby league and we know what is really going on."
For more information: Contact Cameron McGregor at [email protected]
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Sounds like - at best - McGregor (or who he was in charge of) was really careless and didn't keep his/her/their eyes on the accounts, what money was being spent and what that money was being spent on.
The vast majority of businesses that go bung go bung because either no-one cares about chasing up the people who owe them money or no-one wants to upset the people who owe them money.
And so becuase of that, none of their debtors who owe them money pay while they dutifully pay their creditors what they owe them.
The cycle continues until the business can't pay noone no mo' 'cause they ain't got no money no mo'. It's usually Mr/Mrs IRD who notices they ain't been paid first and gets pissed off first...
You've absolutly got to not care about offending people and just phone/email your debtors: "Hey, buddy, it's me, Jimmy, you got my 50 Wahs I sent you last month? Yeah? Good, well, were's my money for em?"
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Auckland Rugby League
Board Statement Interim CEO // We are pleased to advise that we have appointed Duane Mann as Interim CEO of ARL effective 2 December 2024. Duane is of course an established and respected member of...
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Day 1 Warrior Duane Mann new CEO of ARL.
John Nick
Contributor
Hope he does well.Auckland Rugby League
Board Statement Interim CEO // We are pleased to advise that we have appointed Duane Mann as Interim CEO of ARL effective 2 December 2024. Duane is of course an established and respected member of...
Day 1 Warrior Duane Mann new CEO of ARL.
Well respected in RL circles but then so was McGregor
