Imperial College Union's process of procuring a new EPOS system for its walkway shop (the one that sells overpriced stationary and regalia) has turned out the be the unexpected impetus to a serious public rift between ICU President, Senthooran Ganeshwaranathan and his charismatic predecessor, Andy Heeps.

Mr Heeps blasted the President, and his Deputies (and "the Deputy of the Union") over their handling of the process. Essentially, the Executive Committee have been asked to approve the new EPOS system (as agreed by Retail Committee) and a new eCommerce add-on (not considered by Retail Committee) by email. While Mr Heeps recognises that this is "acceptable" given the vacation he has criticised the Sabbatical Officers for not providing the full information required to make an informed decision.

Mr Heeps has also accused them of attempting to approve decisions by the back door.

"Presumably you will be taking a lack of replies as acceptance of the proposal - I'd love to see the auditors faces when they look over this one. In fact, when I read the e-mail I was tempted to contact Internal Audit and put in a complaint, but went to have a coffee instead."

He continues:

"I know that people think I get anal over this, but I find it incredible that this is going the same way as [[the] logo|http://live.cgcu.net/news/?id=210] - over the summer, without approval, hope nobody notices because the end result is good. Presumably the new sabbs are learning lots from this."

Mr Ganeshwaranthan accepted some of Mr Heeps' criticisms and has circulated additional information to the Executive Committee. Mr Heeps described this as blatant "back-peddling". Another senior Union figure mused that Mr Ganeshwaranthan's explanation seemed to politely blame his Deputy (Finance & Services), Ben Hawkins.

An exasperated Mr Heeps released the substantive of his complaint to Live! with the comment that "he [Mr Ganeshwaranathan] makes Mussolini look democratic".

This is the first public rift between a serving President, and a predecessor, for two years. The last was when Andy Heeps fell out with Tasha Newton during her torturous tenure, which ultimately saw Mr Heeps forced to resign as Summer Ball Chairman. Although Hamish Common is understood to privately hold Mr Ganeshwaranathan in contempt, he has yet to make any public comment.

Many in Union circles will see the latest bad news as very damaging to Mr Ganeshwaranthan's credibility. This comes at a time when he is about to start a second term in office - the first ICU President to serve a second year.