Ferry tender process facing investigations
THREE investigations are now under way searching for any irregularities in the tendering process for the £4 million Rathlin ferry contract, the News Letter can reveal.
An internal audit by the Department of Regional Development (DRD), who awarded the contract to Cork businessman Ciaran O’Driscoll in April, a probe into the procurement process and an investigation into complaints against DRD staff are all under way.
One of the investigations is being undertaken by a former senior official at the Highways Agency in England and another is being undertaken by a former senior civil servant.
Steve Rowsell, former director of procurement at the Highways Agency, is leading a team of officials from the Central Procurement Directorate (CPD) – part of the Department of Finance – who are investigating the CPD procurement process.
However, a PSNI spokesman last night denied political rumours that CID had launched its own investigation into the tendering process.
There is no suggestion that Mr O’Driscoll has done anything wrong to be awarded the contract.
The three ongoing probes are revealed in a letter, seen by the News Letter, from DRD Permanent Secretary Paul Priestly to MEP Jim Allister, who first raised questions about the contract shortly after it was awarded in April.
In the letter Mr Priestly said that he hoped the investigations would be completed by September.
He said that the NI Audit Office – which Mr Allister asked to look into the contract – had approved the three probes.
The senior civil servant also revealed in the letter that a series of allegations had been made about two other senior DRD officials, one of which was how they treated whistleblowers.
He said that to investigate these properly the department had brought in a “recently retired former senior civil servant” to look into the allegations.
And yesterday North Antrim MLA Mervyn Storey spoke out about the contract for the first time.
In a statement, Mr Storey said that he was concerned about several aspects of how DRD had awarded the contract.
“The process around who gets control of operating the ferry is of vital importance to my constituents in north Antrim,” he said.
“Since the tendering process was commenced to establish who would be the operator of the ferry service, there have been very serious questions raised.
“People in my constituency have a right to know just what is going on.
“I am calling upon the minister to make a statement indicating the scale of investigations being undertaken by his department in relation to this matter and also to confirm or deny police involvement.
“People want answers to these pressing questions.”
Mr Allister said that he wanted to see a “thorough investigation” into the contract and warned that an internal investigation “may not be sufficient”.
“If the current investigation and Audit Office inquires do not resolve all outstanding issues, then a public external investigation will become a necessity,” he said.
“I am continuing to press these issues with the NI Audit Office, and I look forward to meeting with the office next Monday.”
Last night a DRD spokeswoman said: “As previously reported, there have been a number of allegations regarding the award of the contract for the Rathlin ferry service which are the subject of investigation.”
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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