The U.K. Treasury is "looking into" whether payments made by Formula 1's regulator to Syria, Sudan, Zimbabwe and Iran "breached financial sanctions," according to Christian Sylt for the EXPRESS. The sport has "attracted criticism over grants that have ended up much further afield." FIA reportedly has given grants to organizations in Iran, Sudan, Zimbabwe and Syria over the past three years. It drove Human Rights group Waging Peace to call for a government review, as it believes that oppressive regimes can use racing funded by the grants to promote themselves and signal that they are still "open for business." U.K. Int'l Development Minister Michael Bates said, "Information relating to this matter has been received by HM Treasury via its Office for Financial Sanctions Implementation, which is engaging with relevant government agencies as appropriate to ensure the information is properly considered." There is "no evidence the groups that received grants are owned by their governments." The legitimacy of the projects or the application process has "not been called into question." F1, the teams and drivers "play no part in awarding the grants and FIA documents detail the requirements applicants must meet" (EXPRESS, 10/22).
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST: Sylt also reported the regulator of Formula 1 has been advised by consultancy firm Deloitte to "improve its monitoring processes which ensure that it is free from conflict of interest." The recommendation came in a report produced by Deloitte last year after it was called in by FIA. A summary of Deloitte’s findings is "buried deep" in the document and reveals that although the "threat of corruption" reversed after FIA improved its compliance policy, "residual risks remain." Deloitte made a number of recommendations to deal with them and the summary states that one was "the improvement in the monitoring of the independence of certain FIA bodies and of the absence of conflicts of interest" (FORBES, 10/21).
