FIA Proposes Rule Changes Following Allegations Against President

Mohammed Ben Sulayem assumed the role of FIA president in December 2021, succeeding Jean Todt. The governing body for motorsport, the FIA, is proposing amendments to its regulations that would curtail the mechanisms by which its leadership can be held responsible for governance issues. A series of proposed changes to the statutes, which govern the audit and ethics committees, has been distributed to member clubs for their approval during a vote at the FIA general assembly scheduled for December 13. Under these proposed revisions, ethics complaints would fall under the oversight of the FIA president and the president of its senate, instead of the senate as a whole. Furthermore, the audit committee’s authority to conduct independent investigations into financial matters would be rescinded. These proposals emerge after a year during which both the ethics and audit committees conducted investigations into multiple allegations concerning the conduct of FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem. The allegations encompassed inquiries into the financial affairs of Ben Sulayem’s private office and the creation of a $1.5m “president’s fund” intended to compensate member clubs, which participate in voting for the FIA president. Neither of these particular matters advanced. Additionally, two distinct allegations claiming Ben Sulayem interfered in the operations of 2023 grands prix were ultimately dismissed. Natalie Robyn, the former chief executive officer, departed the organization subsequent to raising concerns regarding the FIA’s overall governance and professional practices, specifically mentioning finances within the president’s office. In the summer, Bertrand Badre, who headed the audit committee, and Tom Purves, an audit committee member, were dismissed following these investigations. Paolo Basarri, the compliance officer responsible for investigating the allegations and reporting them to the ethics committee, was terminated last month. The statutory amendments, reviewed by BBC Sport, eliminate the compliance officer’s capacity to report to the audit committee and also restrict the audit committee’s power to investigate any issue unless specifically requested by the president of the senate. These changes would also grant the FIA president control over the appointment of the head of the ethics committee, while simultaneously removing the involvement of both the senate and the compliance officer from its operational processes. Carmelo Sanz De Barros, who serves as the president of the FIA Senate, is a component of Ben Sulayem’s four-member leadership group. Essentially, critics contend that these modifications would effectively undermine the capacity of whistleblowers to report dubious conduct to the ethics and audit committees, as well as the committees’ own power to take action against any misconduct. The senate, a 12-member body that will no longer be required to receive ethics reports, includes prominent figures such as Prince Faisal Al Hussein of Jordan, Mexican billionaire businessman Carlos Slim Domit, and Akio Toyoda, the chairman of the Toyota car company. The FIA has chosen not to provide a comment. This initiative to alter the FIA statutes concludes a turbulent year for the organization, marked by the departures of numerous senior personnel, including its sporting director, F1 technical director, chief executive officer, digital director, head of commercial legal affairs, governance and regulatory director, race director, compliance officer, a leading steward and deputy steward, the head of the women in motorsport commission, secretary general of mobility, director of communications, and the three most senior HR staff members. In March, the ethics committee exonerated Ben Sulayem, who had campaigned for election on a platform of promoting transparency within the FIA, from two whistleblower allegations claiming the FIA president had interfered in the 2023 Saudi Arabian and Las Vegas Grands Prix. The whistleblower asserted they had observed Ben Sulayem attempting to reverse a penalty issued to Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso in Jeddah, and also trying to compel the race director to withhold certification for the Las Vegas track prior to its inaugural race. The ethics committee stated that it uncovered no evidence to substantiate these allegations. Badre and Purves were dismissed from the FIA following the audit committee’s inquiries into three distinct matters: alleged improper use of the president’s expenses, the resignation of Robyn as CEO, and the $1.5m (£1.19m) “president’s fund”. Badre previously served as a managing director and chief financial officer at the World Bank, while Purves held the position of former chief executive officer for Rolls-Royce cars. Robyn is a former executive in the automotive industry, having worked at Volvo, Nissan, and DaimlerChrysler. The proposed statutory alterations introduce a series of modifications to the operational procedures of both the audit and ethics committees. Key among these changes is the replacement of the ethics committee’s current power to “investigate and assess” complaints with a more limited authority to only “carry out an initial assessment to determine whether an in-depth investigation is necessary”. This assessment report would then be forwarded to the president of the senate, “who may decide to take further action”. This effectively transfers the authority to investigate ethics issues to the president of the senate, removing it from the ethics committee. The amendments further incorporate clauses stipulating that if the FIA president is the subject of an ethics committee investigation, the resulting report will be submitted to the president of the senate; conversely, if the president of the senate is investigated, the report will be directed to the FIA president. This arrangement would, in essence, allow the FIA president and the president of the senate to determine each other’s outcomes in any ethics inquiry. The proposed changes eliminate the compliance officer’s authority to “investigate any suspected irregularities” and report them to the senate, as well as their power to investigate any irregularities involving the FIA president or any individual on their team. They also abolish the compliance officer’s obligation to report to the ethics and/or audit committee. Furthermore, the audit committee’s role in “assuring the accuracy, relevance, and permanence” of the FIA’s accounting methods and in “check[ing] that the internal procedures for the collection and control of information guarantee this” is removed, replaced instead with a straightforward requirement to “review” these aspects. The requirement for the audit committee to participate in the finalization of the FIA’s accounts and the oversight of FIA financial matters and budgets is also eliminated, with the responsibility instead falling to the president of the senate to “consult” the committee “if he/she deems it necessary”.