A matter of accountability
In politics, perception is everything, so let's look at a case in point.
Arlene Foster, a DUP minister, announced that she was minded to grant Seaport Investments Ltd permission to develop a visitor centre privately at the Giant's Causeway. Nigel Dodds, a DUP minister, immediately announced that plans to build a 21 million publicly funded centre had been put on hold. Ian Paisley Jnr, a DUP junior minister, defended the decision on a radio programme.
Yet the most interesting aspect of the saga is that Ian Paisley Jnr didn't think it necessary to inform Arlene Foster, before she announced her decision, that Seymour Sweeney, owner of Seaport Investments, was a paid up member of the DUP. Almost as interesting was the air of coyness he displayed during an on-air encounter with Stephen Nolan on Tuesday morning.
Nolan: "Tell me this, Ian Paisley Jnr, the developer Seymour Sweeney and his company, do you know him?"
Jnr: "He happens to be a constituent. He lives in north Antrim."
Nolan: "He's one of your constituents is he?"
Jnr: "He's a constituent of all six MLAs. He lives in north Antrim, that's correct."
Nolan: "And you support him?"
Jnr: "I know of him."
Now, read that interview again and answer these questions: Why was Jnr so unwilling to admit that he knew Sweeney, knew that Sweeney was a member of the DUP in north Antrim and knew that Sweeney had signed the nomination papers for a DUP candidate in 2005. Let's face it, Jnr is not someone noted for either reticence or half answers. Did it really not occur to him that his failure to tell Mrs Foster of Sweeney's connection with the DUP could be a source of severe embarrassment to her? So severe, in fact, that she threatened legal action if anyone raised questions about her integrity!
No one, least of all me, is suggesting that Mrs Foster, Mr Dodds or Mr Sweeney have acted in any way improperly. But if a precedent is established that ministers can make decisions which do not require a "declaration of interest" (be it financial or party political) in some clearly specified instances, then we really are heading for trouble further down the line. I'm not saying that businessmen and developers should not belong to political parties, but I do believe that if a party member is dependent upon a decision from a minister who is also a party member, then both the minister and the individual should make it known and the Assembly and relevant Assembly committee should be aware of it, too.
As someone who has observed and commented on the Assembly for almost a decade (and who makes no secret of my membership of the UUP, nor shown any unwillingness to criticise it), I have become increasingly concerned about the burgeoning arrogance of the DUP. Had the ministers concerned been Empey and McGimpsey and had the developer been a member of the UUP, I have no doubt at all that the DUP would have had a field day in the Assembly and on the airwaves. Yet when anyone expressed even the mildest misgivings about the decision-making process involving the Causeway, the DUP ministers threatened them with the courts.
The real issue here is that of transparency and accountability in how both ministers and the Assembly make decisions. On January 31, 2000, Iris Robinson initiated a debate on Bairbre de Brun's decision to locate the Province's maternity services at the Royal Victoria rather than the City Hospital and noted: "I agree that the manner of the minister's announcement was totally unacceptable…brought forward to pre-empt the debate in the Assembly today."
But last Tuesday, two DUP ministers did exactly the same thing, even though Mrs Robinson's husband had assured us that "proper accountability" was now at the heart of the government process. It quite clearly isn't.
As it stands today we have absolutely no idea of the nature of the discussion which took place between Mrs Foster and Mr Dodds, nor why it was decided to make their announcements a few hours before the Assembly debate. Was it a party decision, a ministerial decision or a Departmental decision? The Giant's Causeway is a World Heritage site, with the potential to generate millions of pounds of revenue into Northern Ireland's public purse. There may be a convincing argument for allowing a private developer – even one who happens to be a member of the DUP – to run part of the operation, but that argument seems to have been buried. In order to wipe away even the merest whiff of impropriety or cronyism, it would be advisable for both ministers to put their discussions and justifications into the public domain.
And, to enhance transparency and accountability, there should be quite clear procedures for dealing with decisions which may result in considerable financial advantage for someone who belongs to the same political party as the minister or ministers making the decision. Mrs Foster has said "a minister, when making decisions, cannot and should not investigate party affiliation for applicants and I did not do so in this case". But when a minister makes a decision which appears to be favourable to a member of their own party, they can hardly be surprised if voices of concern are raised. Nigel Dodds looked and sounded unconvincing on the BBC programme Let's Talk, when he tried to brush away these concerns with the fatuous defence that a Protestant member of the Executive wouldn't be able to give the nod to a Protestant applicant.
Had Mr Dodds and Mrs Foster saved their announcements until the Assembly debate on Tuesday afternoon, informed the chamber of the fact that Mr Sweeny was also a member of the DUP, and then placed on record every stage of the decision-making process, this whole mess would have been avoided.
The fact that they chose another route entirely is the strongest possible argument for ensuring that the mechanisms are in place to stop such a thing happening again.Those mechanisms are the foundations of democracy, scrutiny, transparency and accountability; the very mechanisms which the DUP claimed to have embedded in the St Andrews' additions to the Belfast Agreement. It really is about time that we had a formal, funded, effective and official Opposition within the Assembly structure.
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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