A report by The Times has outlined how Drax attempted to 'silence' an employee, after she raised concerns that it had misled British energy regulator Ofgem about its true sustainability credentials.
In a London-held tribunal, Rowaa Ahmar, who was head of Drax’s public affairs and policy team, claimed she was unfairly dismissed, months after expressing concerns to executives about the claims of utilising sustainable wood.
Rowaa Ahmar said the biomass giant tried to 'deliberately conceal' the truth about its operations.
A 2022 BBC documentary alleged the company's felling of old-growth forests in Canada. Ahmar said this triggered 'a level of chaos that I have never seen before' within the company.
She was 'unable to prove that [Drax] only sources sustainable wood for its biomass and that it was, in fact, using unsustainable wood.'
In legal submissions, Ahmar said that, in the weeks after the BBC documentary's broadcast, she received information that increasingly showed Drax had been 'misleading the public, government and its regulator'.
According to Ahmar, she began making whistlelowing complaints, which included a letter to Drax chief executive Will Gardiner.
Sean Jones KC, representing Drax, asked Ahmar why she believed there had been a cover up. Ahmar responded by saying she was issued with an ultimatum: “sign an NDA, take money and go quietly”.
She told the tribunal: “Instead of being open and honest with the regulators after the BBC Panorama, they chose to try to silence me and that’s what I mean by [an] attempt to cover up.”
Ahmar's complaints allegedly brought her a 'slow death' within the company, and she was eventually dismissed in January last year.
Setting out her case against Drax and Gardiner, Ahmar said she joined an 'extremely dysfunction[al]' team beset by poor morale and with strained relations between employees.
She said Drax treated her unfairly, and extended her probation period. Colleagues were told she was a whistleblower, and she was placed on a period of leave, she claimed.
Taxpayer-subsidised Drax responded by saying that Ahmar was 'unmanageable' and, during her period of employment there, created a 'maelstrom of chaos'. It also said she had 'lost the trust and confidence of multiple colleagues' within weeks of taking up her position.
Drax also claimed that Ahmar was an unreliable witness, and that her account of events had altered over time, and even that she had lied at times.
Ofgem told Drax to pay £25 million into a redress fund last year, because it failed to provide sufficient evidence regarding woody biomass consignments imported from Canada between 2021 and 2022.
The hearing continues.
Former Drax lobbyist claims “extremely dysfunctional” company tried to silence her
