The board of the University Co-Operative Bookshop decided yesterday not to take any action over an allegation of a conflict of interest by one of its directors.
A statement issued by the chairman of the board of directors, James Emerson, said that the board had also appointed Malcolm Thomas as acting managing director following the dismissal a week ago of the three most senior executives of the co-op.
A special meeting of directors had been called for yesterday by director Ted Seng, a Sydney accountant. Mr Seng is one of a number of young directors with mainly accounting backgrounds who have been elected at the past two elections replacing directors with long academic, publishing and business backgrounds.
It is understood he had proposed seek the removal of Maurice Dunlevy from the board because Mr Dunlevy had written in his weekly column in üThe Canberra Times that certain books were available from Dymocks, a competitor of the co-op.
Mr Dunlevy, of the University of Canberra, has been on the board for nine years. He is the only remaining academic on it and is its longest-serving member. He was not at the special meeting that sacked the executives because the agenda item spoke of healing past differences that had built up to start the new year on an amicable footing and he had a family commitment at the time. He said he had been taken by surprise. He has praised the sacked executives, including the general manager Jack McLoone, as people of integrity and managerial talent.
Mr Emerson said yesterday that advertisements had appeared in national newspapers for the three jobs: general manager, financial controller and head of the schools division. He expected appointments within three weeks. He had been given legal advice to decline comment on why the three former executives had been sacked.
He said Mr Thomas had been with the co-op for 13 years, the last six as supply manager. Mr Thomas would be arranging meetings with branch managers in the near future to allay concerns relating to recent events. The co-op was in a sound financial position.
Staff at several co-op stores have expressed their anxiety about the sackings. Staff and members are concerned that at board and executive level the co-op is losing its academic and publishing skills. The board has nine directors with a third up for election every year. Staff sources say that very few of the 570,000 members vote at board elections.
The co-op has 570,000 members and stores in nearly all tertiary institutions and serves some schools. It was founded 34 years ago to ensure adequate supplies of academic books at a reasonable price.
Mr Emerson said members of the co-op had a democratic right to seek a special general meeting over the events if they wanted. However, the board was charged with running the co-op in between members’ meetings.