Lloyd Doyle, Music PEI board member who makes sure his company gets the most benefit from the grants

Music PEI had no independent jury system last year

When we asked Music PEI in 2008 how they avoided director conflict of interest they hid both their policy and who received funding after April 30, 2008.

There was supposed to be an independent jury system which would isolate the directors from the grants and awards but it did not exist. Most of the Board sat on the juries, Rob Oakie being the most common juror.

Jury system or not, the Board of Directors should not be applying for and receiving grants for themselves, their family members or their business associates.

It’s a breach of fiduciary trust, a conflict of interest.

At the Canada Council for the Arts, directors and employees are not allowed to apply for funding. As in all matters related to conflict of interest, the appearance of a conflict is the same as a conflict.

Music PEI has a record of granting money to it’s directors almost universally. There are more directors getting insider money than not. It’s all about the money at Music PEI

Was there an independent jury?

Prior to April 2009, the Board of Directors and Rob Oakie adjudicated most of the applications.  We have direct evidence of jury conversations that include statements from Oakie. Musicians have told us of conversations over their grants in Oakie’s office where he and another director would approve grants during conversations.

“Independent and anonymous assessment panels comprised of a minimum of three industry professionals will evaluate, assess and award the funding based on the merits of the project proposal and need of the applicant. Amounts awarded will be subject to the availability of funding within the program.” Music PEI news release December 2007

That was the plan but in reality the Board and Oakie made the decisions. It’s obvious the board was in conflict of interest so massively they needed a cover story. Our questions in the fall of 2008 were embarrassing.

After a series of articles on conflict of interest and insider dealing, Music PEI came up with a fancy explanation of how the Board member’s get so many applications approved by the “independent” jury. Music PEI Funding Program- How the decisions are made. They do admit the board makes the final decision or is at least responsible for it, quoting

Because of the arms length nature of the jury process, conflict of interest issues as in the case of board member grant applications, are avoided. In turn, the Board (which is volunteer) is in place to insure that correct procedures are followed and to oversee the overall funding and operation of the Association

The Music PEI board should have that sentence reviewed by a competent lawyer since it tries to absolve the board of a conflict while admitting the board is in control of the process. Any board of directors is in control: that’s the role they play. By law and convention directors are supposed to avoid personal dealing with the organization.

The news release contains numerous illogical and contradictory statements,

As Music PEI is an industry association and not an arts council, all funding decisions made by the jury are based on the business quality of the applications and not necissarily (sp) on the artistic merit of the product.

The differentiation on “an arts council” is specifically to avoid following the Canada Council of the Arts which has strict conflict of interest guidelines. Those guidelines don’t apply because it is “art”: they apply to all public organizations inclusing governments, crown corporations and not-for-profits like Music PEI.

The statement about business quality of the applications versus artistic merit is also not true. There is direct evidence of applicants with strong business skills being turned down when they developed sophisticated marketing plans that were beyond Rob Oakie’s ability to understand. It is very frustrating to deal with people like Music PEI who are essentially amateurs in business and music. The underlying reason for the confusion is the Board’s proved interest in rejecting applicants to fund their own projects.

If Music PEI has limited funding, as claimed in the same release, the ability of the Board to receive most of the money is another indicator of preferential treatment.

As Music PEI has limited funding, it is not always possible to provide grants for all applications. As a result, sometimes applicants receive partial funding and/or lower scores receive no funding.

Directors are called to serve their beneficiaries first, in this case the musicians. This has not happened.