STAND UP: Politicians can and must grasp this nettle. For too long they have feared repercussions. No more can that be accepted. We need a range of censures. One might possibly overlook a declaration of something very small on a form and be reprimanded in a small way, but a conflict of interest should carry a severe penalty.
Brian Rowntree, chair of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive resigned on Friday, although the news was only released today. It’s thought to be related to a Ministerial statement that ought to make tomorrow’s Assembly session rather more interesting than normal. It comes on foot of the first of several forensic examinations of the Executive’s books (the Audit Office is due to report later in the year).. For the BBC, Julian O’Neil references an independent report on contracts carried out by …
Not sure how seriously to take this one, since the legal complications it might invoke would probably rule it out from any serious consideration. But on the eve of the publication of a major report from Stormont’s Public Accounts Committee, Slugger understands that some members of the PAC have been suggesting that the phone records of its members should be investigated in order to source the leak of an earlier draft version of that report to UTV on the goings …
