The four non-executive directors wrongfully dismissed from by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) have welcomed a formal apology as “an important first step”.

Last week, the governing council of RICS publicly apologised to four non-executives who were unjustly sacked from the organisation after raising concerns over an audit.

An independent review into the RICS governance scandal, published in July, concluded that the four non-executive RICS directors, Amaarjit Atkar, Bruce McAra, Simon Hardwick and Steve Williams, had been wrongfully dismissed, and improperly threatened with legal proceedings.

The four members have issued a joint statement welcoming the apology, but admit that it is “difficult to accept”.

Statement by the four former non-executive Management Board members in response to the public apology from RICS:

We are relieved this matter has finally reached a welcome outcome for us with the publication of RICS’s formal apology. We have endured a prolonged, difficult and stressful period since the issues within RICS first came to our attention in late 2018. Our focus – both then and now – was to discharge our responsibilities to the best of our abilities and to do the right thing for the Institution we had been appointed to serve.

The apology from the Interim Chair of Governing Council is an important first step. It is, however, difficult to accept it as a statement of genuine contrition from those responsible when the apology appears on RICS’s own website alongside the expressions of thanks from the Chair contained in the resignation statements of Sean Tompkins, Chris Brooke and Kathleen Fontana, each of whom left office following publication of Alison Levitt QC’s report.

We fully support the Institution’s commitment to consistently embed its recently published values – including those of integrity and transparency. As part of the process of re-establishing trust and confidence, these standards should be applied to all officers, members and external advisors in relation to past conduct, as well as in the future.

RICS issues public apology to dismissed non-executive directors