Public contracts - A good case for reform

THERE is no suggestion that HSE board chairman Dr Frank Dolphin did anything wrong to secure an HSE contract worth almost €300,000 but it still stinks to high heaven.

Rigney Dolphin, of which Dr Dolphin and his wife Adrienne are main shareholders, was paid €291,927 last year by the HSE for dealing with telephone queries on medical cards. It raises several questions: Why could HSE staff not deal with the matter? Were all proper procedures, including publicity, followed before the contract was awarded?

The best way to remove any doubt in these situations would be to make it illegal for anyone serving on a state board or elected to a public body to have commercial dealings with that body. As there seems to be such an appetite for reform it should be easy, if there is a real political will to do so, to enact such legislation quickly.