A lot of the blame for this Firefinch debacle has been placed at...

A lot of the blame for this Firefinch debacle has been placed at the feet of both Cowden and Anderson, and rightly so! but Taplin (Chief Operations Officer) has managed to escape any shareholder backlash, adding to the outrage he was awarded Performance Shares post his resignation that had also expired.

If you look at the ASIC, Corporations Act, Legislative Instruments Act, Company Policies and Constitution, Corporate Governance, ASX Listing Rules and Guidelines, the total failure of this Company was at the hands of the current board & previous directors post the acquisition of Morila SA encompassing the Morila mine, excluding the 2 directors that resigned after a period of 1 week.

The clearest definitions of the directors duties can be found in ASIC's Information Sheet 183 which outlines;
Directors and Financial Reporting, General Duties:

Directors have a duty of care and diligence under both general law and Corporations Act 2001 (Corporations Act)
A director is an essential component of corporate governance.
Each director is placed at the apex of the structure of direction and management of a company.

As a director, you have a core, irreducible requirement of involvement in the management of the company. You must take reasonable steps to place yourself in a position to guide and monitor the management of the company.

Your responsibilities are not limited by your particular background knowledge and experience. You must become familiar with the business of your company and how it is run, and ensure that management is running it properly.

If you take on a role with special responsibilities, such as the chair of an audit committee or the role of an executive director, you must carry out these increased responsibilities with appropriate care and diligence.

You must take reasonable steps to comply with, or secure compliance with, the financial reporting and audit requirements of the Corporations Act, including the requirement to keep proper books and records.

Instead of the dazed look of a rabbit caught in a spotlight, this board at some point must be made accountable to at least inform in detail to the Shareholders, what actually went wrong! Rather than all us trying to guess what went wrong.

cheers