SCOTLAND'S hopes of medal success at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow have been overshadowed by a rift between the country's leading gymnastics association and the national sports agency.
The Scottish Gymnastics Association (SGA) has defended itself following the publication of a damning report into its operations by Duncan Macniven, the former Registrar General for Scotland, which has thrown the sport into turmoil in the run-up to the Games.
Sportscotland has withdrawn the Stirling-based body's funding after Mr Macniven criticised the organisation's handling of disciplinary procedures and child-protection policy, leaving clubs throughout the country facing uncertainty.
An insider at the sports agency, part-funded by the Scottish Government, said it would now have to look at alternative ways to fund gymnastics and accused the SGA of chaotic leadership and bullying.
However, SGA president Lynn Milne said: "We totally refute the findings of this report and these unfounded allegations.
"The findings are factually incorrect and wholly misrepresentative.
"It is important to state we have always worked in partnership with Sportscotland and have a strong leadership team which has achieved independent recognition for its high governance standards. The organisation has an exemplary record on child protection and we take every step possible to ensure the safety of children."
Ms Milne said the SGA requested a delay in the preparation of the report due to "ongoing legal proceedings" and was initially given assurances it would not be completed until it was in a position to co-operate fully. However, she claimed the report was then completed without the SGA's evidence.
A Sportscotland source said: "The SGA is presiding over a culture of fear and have been bullying their staff – more than a third have left within the past two years.
"They've also had an additional £1.5 million in funding over the last three years on top of the £850,000 they normally receive, and yet they now have fewer competing gymnasts than they had five years ago. This raises questions over where that money has been spent.
"For the sake of the sport's future and with the Commonwealth Games just a couple of years away, we've been left with no choice but to withhold funding."
Sportscotland will now consider funding clubs directly.
In his report, Mr Macniven found serious shortcomings in the organisation's leadership and said its handling of the disciplinary process was "unsatisfactory".
Mr Macniven also said the management had not followed policy when dealing with a child-protection issue relating to one member of staff facing disciplinary action.
Two senior members of SGA staff were dismissed for gross misconduct, including former head of education and development, Jackie Archibald.
This came after a gymnastics club complained another member of staff had been abusing his position by gaining assistance solely for his club to obtain a lease of Aberdeen College premises.
The worker had also been accused of breaching child-protection policy, but police were only informed after the SGA suspended his membership – four months after the initial allegation and after he had been dismissed.
Both disciplined officers – who have now launched employment tribunal actions – accused the chief executive of misconduct.
Mr Macniven agreed with the pair, who said the SGA management was determined to find them guilty.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article