NEWPORT County's board of directors has issued a statement following accusations made by director Jon Bowkett at Tuesday night's club annual general meeting.

The statement is signed by directors Gavin Foxall, Shaun Johnson, Tony Pring and Simon Sadler but not by Bowkett.

The statement in full reads as follows:

Following the AGM the Board members committed to provide a statement to address the issues raised by one of the directors from the audience.

Provided below are detailed responses to the points raised.

Firstly, the reason auditors have been appointed is to ensure there is independent verification of all the financial transactions within the club. It was felt this was an important part of our transparency agenda.

It (the board) refutes strongly any suggestion that funds have not been spent appropriately. Controls have been put in place that ensure the club is able to understand both its income streams and its outgoings. A cash flow is agreed each month for all bills to be paid and from what source.

Financially the club is in a strong position entering the season, with season ticket and commercial income being used for the forthcoming season rather than meeting the deficit for the previous season, as has occurred in
previous seasons.

Furthermore ‘contra’ deals have been eliminated and commercial income secured is cash-backed.

In order to provide further comfort on the financial position of the club Nick Igoe will provide a separate financial statement within the next few days.

One of the other key issues raised was around the appointment of Michael Flynn (as Football and Business Development Director).

All Board members have been discussing the topic for a number of weeks and there was consensual agreement on the change.

Indeed it was Jon Bowkett’s idea and this was supported. It is not appropriate to go into the contractual detail of Michael’s appointment but what we can share is that it is aligned to his remuneration in his coaching role, including supporting him in his football development.

This was achieved once agreement on terms was reached with Sean McCarthy (the new first team coach).

It is true there are a number of HR issues which are ongoing at the club. These are being handled in an appropriate manner for the good of both the club and the employees.

Once these are fully resolved we will issue a further statement, recognising the personal nature of such issues.

In terms of board meetings these have been held monthly throughout the season and minutes have been produced for all board meetings.

Notwithstanding this, further informal meetings are held and email
communication is also used when decisions need to be made between board meetings.

All interim board members are included in correspondence and a positive majority agreement is taken too proceed on matters.

Whilst we are disappointed at the manner of how the issues were raised at this week’s meeting we do recognise it is important that supporters have confidence in the board representatives who will be elected on
their behalf.

To this end we will seek to ensure our processes are as robust as possible, ensuring we operate in a professional manner, and that the newly-elected Board are clear on the authorisation process moving forward
(ie. what decisions need to be made at formal board meetings and the process for making other decisions in the interim period).

We have and are committed to acting in the best interests of the Football club and have no wish to undertake any action that may well be contrary to that belief.