Backing for minister in NI water company row

A Northern Ireland minister who forced the suspension of his top civil servant got the guarded backing of politicians overseeing his handling of the affair today.

Sinn Féin Regional Development Minister Conor Murphy is responsible for government-owned company Northern Ireland Water (NIW).

But a damning report which found that the firm issued nearly £30m in contracts without properly tendering the work has sparked a row that has threatened to become a major political dispute.

Four members of the NIW board were sacked, but Permanent Secretary at the Department of Regional Development (DRD) Paul Priestly was suspended this week over claims that he mishandled the independent investigation into their conduct.

The Stormont committee scrutinising DRD today held the first of a series of meetings on the issue.

Committee chairman and Ulster Unionist representative Fred Cobain said they had confidence in the minister, but would be putting questions to him in a face-to-face meeting planned for September 1.

After a two-hour closed meeting, Mr Cobain said the committee had serious concerns over the NIW crisis, but on the minister's position, he added: ``I don't see where he could be described as vulnerable.

“The minister came to the committee with the independent report, he gave the committee assurances around the independent report that we agreed and supported, we supported the action that the minister took after the publication of the report.

“I haven’t heard anyone say that the issues around the procurement policy weren’t right, I haven’t heard anyone defending the procurement policies.

“And as far as I am concerned, until I see any evidence to the contrary, the minister was right in the decision he took.”

He added: “We have confidence in the minister in that he came to the committee, gave assurances around the independent report.

“I haven’t seen or heard evidence that contradicts that.”

But the political temperature was immediately raised over the controversy when Democratic Unionist Minister Sammy Wilson asked if the civil servant was being made a scapegoat.

“This is a classic ploy, where you know that there is going to be some heat brought down because of a particular action, you try and find someone to act as a conduit for that,” he said.

“On the surface of it, the minister has got similar questions to answer as the permanent secretary has got to answer.”

On Tuesday Mr Murphy said he had received information which made Mr Priestly’s position “no longer tenable”.

It was subsequently announced by head of the Northern Ireland civil service Bruce Robinson that Mr Priestly was to be suspended.

There are allegations that Mr Priestly mishandled the independent review of NIW, while behind-the-scenes developments since the Assembly’s powerful Public Accounts Committee (PAC) began an investigation into the issues, will also be investigated.

The independent review of NIW found £28.5m of contracts were awarded without being correctly tendered – a revelation that sparked the sacking of the four members of its board.

A series of emails allegedly compiled by Mr Priestly is now at the centre of an investigation by the PAC.

The department has said Mr Priestly’s suspension followed an earlier PAC hearing and was to facilitate the investigation. It said it was not a disciplinary penalty.

Mr Cobain said he will be meeting senior members of the PAC so they can brief each other on the issues, and the Regional Development Committee will hear directly from the minister on September 1.

“At that meeting we will be asking the minister to explain to the committee, with the utmost clarity, developments since he briefed us on the Independent Review Team’s report on 15 March 2010,” he said. “We will also be asking him to set out the further action he proposes to take.”

Sinn Féin’s Billy Leonard said a focus must remain on the apparent mishandling of public money by NIW and he criticised the intervention of Finance Minister Sammy Wilson.

He said Mr Murphy was tackling a culture in which public contracts were not properly tendered.

“That culture has to be challenged,” he added. “The minister was challenging a culture. If the culture was wrong about the awarding of contracts, he is quite entitled to do that challenge.”

Mr Leonard said the minister behaved correctly: “There is no issue of scapegoating. The minister is interested in having fair play at all levels ... the question of scapegoating is good for a headline, but has no substance.”

The SDLP’s Conall McDevitt said: “To me this isn’t a political crisis, it’s an administrative crisis that involves a minister in his role as minister. Party doesn’t come into it, in my mind.

“There are two big questions that I think the minister and the administration have to cope with immediately.”

He said the issues focus on the NIW tendering process and the question of whether the independent review was compromised.

“It is, I think, critically important that the Regional Development Committee, as the relevant scrutiny committee, investigate and test the independence of that report.”

He added: “”Regional Development Minister Conor Murphy fired four members of the board of NI Water on the basis of a report from the Independent Review Team he had appointed.

“Given the events of the last few days and weeks, and particularly those which led to the suspension of departmental Permanent Secretary Paul Priestly ... there are grounds to question whether that inquiry process was truly independent. That will be the main focus of the committee inquiry.”