Ferry tender report set to reveal 'serious issues'
A SIX-month investigation will today reveal "serious problems" in the tendering process for the £4 million Rathlin ferry contract, the News Letter understands.
The independent investigator's report into the contract – which is subsidised through the Department of Regional Development (DRD) with 4 million of public money – will this morning be presented at a private session of Stormont's Regional Development Committee.
The ferry contract was awarded to Cork businessman Ciaran O'Driscoll in April.
Although there is no suggestion that Mr O'Driscoll did anything improper to win the contract, the DRD tendering process has been the subject of a series of allegations.
It is understood that DRD permanent secretary Paul Priestly and other senior DRD civil servants along with John Dowdall, head of the Northern Ireland Audit Office, will attend today's hearing.
Press will not be allowed to attend the meeting but a copy of the "substantial" report is to be published this afternoon, DRD said.
Several sources involved in the investigation said that today's report will raise a number of serious issues for DRD to address.
One said: "It's such a detailed report with so many allegations."
North Antrim DUP MLA Mervyn Storey said that there must be no "whitewash" by the department of "serious issues" surrounding the tender process.
"We need answers and the fact that it is coming to the committee shows that it is a live issue," he said.
"There is more work to be done on this and I suspect that after there has been a presentation by the officials there will be more questions to be asked than answers given."
And MEP Jim Allister, who asked the Audit Office to investigate the contract, said of the investigation: "It must not be swept under the carpet – there might be some role for a briefing in private but thereafter I would have thought that they must go into public session and the public must know about this," he said.
n Full coverage of the investigation report in tomorrow's News Letter
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Sunday 12 February 2012
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