Top Man Suspended In NI Water Probe

As news broke last night that the most senior civil servant in the Department for Regional Development (DRD) has been suspended over controversial events at NI Water (NIW), politicians have jointly called for "full disclosure".

The Vice-Chairman of the DRD Committee, Michelle McIlveen of the DUP, called for a special sitting of the Committee commenting: "This is a deeply serious situation, unprecedented in the assembly".

"They will question how the DRD Minister was able to offer defence for the Permanent Secretary and in less than 24 hours make a compete U-turn," she said.

Her fellow Committee member, Conall McDevitt of the SDLP, said it was "a very serious development".

Officially, the NI Civil Service said the suspension of top officer, Paul Priestly was to facilitate the investigation and was not a disciplinary penalty.

But the Regional Development Minister himself, Conor Murphy, has issued a statement saying Mr Priestly's position was untenable - which is somewhat more definitive.

He also said he had been in contact with the head of the civil service on the issue.

Also commenting on the suspension of Paul Priestley, Sinn Fein MLA Paul Maskey and Mr Murphy's party colleague said: "Clearly, the Minister for Regional Development, has received information of a significant nature.

"His decision that the position of the Permanent Secretary within his Department was no longer tenable would not have been taken lightly.

"Conor Murphy has once again acted promptly and robustly.

"The information he received was from Mr. Priestly himself, which presumably is why he was able to come to a speedy conclusion regarding Mr. Priestley's position."

He went on to say that "there is now a focus on an additional issue beyond mismanagement within NI Water".

He claimed that "wrongdoing in public services should not be tolerated" and said: "It is quite proper that those who presided over the failures within NI Water which allowed 73 contracts worth over £28m to be awarded without public tender to be held responsible and removed from their positions.

"And it is also proper that any senior civil servant who acts inappropriately should equally be held responsible and removed from his or her position."

Mr Priestly has been in the job for two and a half years and is the chief advisor to the Minister.

His suspension came a day after a UTV investigation that examined Mr Priestly's role in relation to sackings of four NIW board members.

The Minister sacked them in March after an independent review found they were culpable for a breakdown in procurement procedures that meant that £28.5m of contracts was awarded without being correctly tendered.

UTV uncovered documents which purported to show that Mr Priestly - who jointly commissioned the independent review - was then given an early draft of its report and asked for changes to be made.

Those changes are alleged to have directed criticism on procurement matters away from the DRD and onto the NIW directors.

Mr Priestly then gave evidence about the matter to Stormont's spending watchdog, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), in July.

At that hearing some members of the PAC raised questions about just how independent the review had been conducted.

The SDLP's John Dallat, who is a member of the Assembly's Public Accounts Committee, said a wide-ranging inquiry was needed: "We really want to see an inquiry that has got quality, has got prestige and exonerates those four people who were treated very badly," he said.

"I do think the four people who were sacked should be reinstated. I think there's time for reflection for a lot of people who were involved in an injustice."

(BMcC/GK)