Jim Allister on Lawrence MacKenzie’s golden handshake

Jim Allister has an interesting set of questions over Lawrence MacKenzie’s severance package which has been picked up on by the News Letter.

The questions essentially revolve around why if MacKenzie resigned of his own volition, he received over £90,000. As Allister says:

“what sort of a remarkable contract had he which entitled him to a handsome severance package even when he himself choose to go? Does this mean that if the crisis had never occurred and he merely decided to leave, perhaps for an even higher paid job, he could have pocketed a severance package? If so, it is a truly remarkable and foolhardy contract, for which the paying public deserve an explanation.”

Allister suggests that had MacKenzie been dismissed for gross misconduct he would not have been entitled to a payout. In addition now even if the enquiry fins MacKenzie culpable for many of the problems in NI Water there is no sanction against him

As Allister says at the end: “These are some of the questions which cry out for answer, but with an Assembly where no Opposition is permitted, they will go unanswered.”

Turgon

This author has not written a biography and will not be writing one.