The FIA General Assembly in Rwanda approved FIA governance changes. It affects the roles of the ethics and audit committees at the governing body of motorsport.
With these plans, the responsibilities of the compliance officer would be left to the FIA president and the president of the senate. Audit committees also wouldn’t have the power to investigate financial issues independently as they did until now. Instead, it would only be required “if asked to do so by the president of the Senate”.
With these FIA governance changes approved, several senior F1 team members expressed their concerns. Both David Richards, the UK’s representative on the World Motor Sport Council, Oliver Schmerold, who’s the head of Austria’s motorsport federation, also spoke up about the restructure. The critics don’t like the fact it removes the FIA’s leadership from being held accountable for bad governance.
Reasons for the FIA governance changes
According to the FIA, there are three main reasons for making these changes to its rules. Across all of them, there’s an important topic of confidential materials being automatically shared or even leaked to the media. And that’s something the new rules are supposed to prevent more than they did until now.
Changes to the ethics committee
Statement relating to the changes in ethics committee said: “First, to preserve and enhance the independence of the ethics committee by reducing the involvement of the FIA administration in its operation.
“The ethics committee previously only reported to the president. It now reports to both the president and the president of the senate. The committee now has the powers to independently assess whether or not to launch an investigation.
“Second, as a result of continuous leaks to the media of confidential material, including ethics committee reports, it is now proposed that the distribution of any ethics committee report will be limited.
“This does not prevent either the president or the president of the senate from involving senate members or other members of the FIA or its staff in discussing or implementing any recommendations from the ethics committee.
“Finally, ethics committee reports can often contain material of a confidential nature including criminal or safeguarding issues. It was therefore necessary to limit the automatic sharing of this information with multiple members and FIA staff.
“Limiting the distribution of the report will also protect the complainant and individual subject to the investigation.”
Changes to the audit committee
The FIA stated that the audit committee should function as an “advisory body to the senate”.
“The aim of the changes is to clarify that the audit committee is an advisory body to the senate. And that it shall operate within the limits of the FIA statutes,” a statement added.
“The proposed amendments simply clarify that the audit committee is a support body for the senate and that the internal regulations of the audit committee will, in future, be approved by the senate.
“The audit committee retains its powers to assist and investigate if asked to do so by the president of the senate.”
Turnaround in the financial status of the FIA
While these FIA governance changes are being discussed, they announced a significant progress in the financial status. The FIA projects an operating result of €2.2 million for 2024. That is a significant improvement from the -€24 million in 2021.
FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem commented: “This achievement is a result of our commitment of reform of the organization in the areas of governance and finance.
“The new FIA leadership inherited a financial situation which was not sustainable in 2022. We have worked hard to reduce a sizeable deficit and have stabilized the overall financial health of the federation.
“We have implemented cost-containment measures and revenue-generating strategies to put the FIA on a more sustainable financial footing to meet our primary purpose of supporting our member clubs,” he concluded.
